


Cloudbusting

by astrangerenters



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 22:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 42,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/pseuds/astrangerenters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Unless you can find someone willing to love the arrogant, boastful thing that you are, you will never be a man again. Never!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An Arashi take on Beauty and the Beast

_You're making rain, and you're just in reach._  
\--Cloudbusting, Kate Bush

\--

In a far off kingdom, some say more than three weeks' journey from ours by even the swiftest airship, was the town of Sora. Nestled in a quiet valley surrounded by ancient forests and rice fields, Sora had only recently been reached by locomotive. Sora was a town of gentle farmers and humble merchants, but as the locomotive arrived, so did ambition. The farmsteads grew fewer, and more people gravitated to the town center. Buildings two and three stories high arose as technology advanced, and the once clean cobblestones began to be stained with soot from factories sprouting up.

It was in this time of wonder and advancement that a young inventor from the capital made his way to Sora, finding a patron in Count Matsumoto, the king's representative in their area. From the train station at Sora, the inventor journeyed through the forests to Matsumoto Castle, towing along all sorts of creations he'd attempted over the years. Count Matsumoto granted the inventor a large space within the castle to use as his workshop. As the town had started to grow and the number of mouths to feed outweighed the valley's resources, Count Matsumoto wished for the inventor to find a way to prevent crop failures and increase the yield of the land since the Rain Goddess had not blessed them with ample precipitation in recent years.

With the support of Sora's mayor, Sho Sakurai, and Count Matsumoto's financial backing, the inventor got to work. He tinkered and he tinkered, laboring for many nights with the help of his assistant, Nino. Together, the two manipulated metal, forging the inventor's finest creation yet.

It was an ordinary day in the Sora town square as Mayor Sakurai urged the citizens to gather. Count Matsumoto's finest horses were hauling the device into town for a demonstration, with the inventor himself sitting in the saddle beside his benefactor. All gathered 'round with hushed whispers, eager to learn the secrets of the workshop at Matsumoto Castle.

Mayor Sakurai gave a longwinded speech as he was inclined to do, and the inventor fidgeted and fumbled, sidestepped and mumbled, waiting for the demonstration to begin. Matsumoto stood at the Mayor's side, looking proud, and Nino stood at the inventor's side, looking amused. The time finally arrived, and Mayor Sakurai looked to the inventor with expectation and hope in his eyes.

The inventor nervously stepped forward, scratching at his hair out of habit. The crowd looked at him expectantly, curiosity in their faces as the factories of Sora around them sent out plumes of thick, black smoke. He smiled hesitantly and finally Nino gave him a swift kick in the rear to get him going.

"My name is Masaki Aiba!" the inventor blurted out, rubbing his rump and shooting Nino a dirty look. "And I am an inventor."

"We know!" the crowd called.

"The mayor already said that!"

"Oh!" the inventor said sheepishly, blushing as red as Mayor Sakurai's tweed coat. "Well..."

Count Matsumoto rolled his eyes, stepping down off of the platform and walking over to the sheet that was covering the inventor's creation.

The inventor was losing the crowd so he pointed straight up at the sky. "She has forgotten this town!"

A few turned back, paying closer attention.

"The Rain Goddess once blessed Sora year round. Sunshine, rain, snow. All in equal measure," Aiba shouted. "But now she has ignored your cries! Your cries for rain and for crop yields and all that great stuff!"

Aiba could have sworn he heard Nino choke down a laugh behind him. So what if the inventor wasn't good with words - his inventions spoke for themselves.

"Count Matsumoto, Mayor Sakurai, if you would?" The two men tugged on the cloth, revealing his masterpiece. The crowd gasped, awaiting an explanation for the newest mechanical monstrosity on display in their town square. It consisted of an iron platform with an attached seat and a panel full of switches and knobs. Out from the center of the panel came a dozen shiny metallic tubes, rounded at each end like a trumpet. Aiba hopped down, Nino at his heels.

The townsfolk stepped back as Aiba got onto the invention's platform to sit down in the chair before the panel. "Ladies and gentlemen of Sora, the Rain Goddess has forgotten you, and thus it is the imagination of mankind that must define the future! If the Rain Goddess will not bless you with rain, then we must create our own!"

Nino helped the Mayor and the Count fold up the cloth, urging the people to give Aiba room to work. The inventor pressed a series of switches. With a few noisy clangs and a sputter, the device came to life. Aiba chose that time to scream over the copious cacophony.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Sora, I present you with my Cloudbuster Machine!"

Of course, the noise from the Cloudbuster drowned out the inventor's explanation of how the machine worked, which was as follows: the metallic tubes were pointed at the heavens, drawing energy from the clouds overhead. Molecules from the clouds were then stored within the Cloudbuster. After a few more knobs were spun and switches switched, the power reversed and the Cloudbuster's tubes expelled water. That would solve a drought or two.

Water burst in a powerful spray from the Cloudbuster's dozen or so tubes, and there was an uproar. The townsfolk were summarily drenched, save for Nino the assistant who had thought to bring an umbrella for himself. Mayor Sakurai called for calm, Count Matsumoto beamed from ear to ear. Nino rolled his eyes and held tight to his umbrella handle.

The inventor himself leaned back in his seat, letting the rain he'd created soak him to the bone. He shut his eyes and smiled. He'd done it. He'd finally done it. He had defied the heavens themselves! He let loose a whoop of celebration, the rain drenching his coat and breeches. Though the crowd had initially been frightened (and of course irritated by the sudden soaking), they burst into cheers, hugging one another and chanting Aiba's name happily. For their prayers had been answered! Even if the Rain Goddess paid Sora no mind, certainly Masaki Aiba's Cloudbuster Machine would save their fields!

Aiba flipped more switches and twisted more knobs and the roaring Cloudbuster rattled its way off, the remaining water turning into a cool mist and then into nothing. He got out of the chair, slipping briefly on a puddle that had formed on the metal platform, before turning to the crowd. He could see Mayor Sakurai wiping off his pince-nez with a handkerchief and Count Matsumoto examining the thoroughly sodden state of his top hat. Nino offered him a thumbs up.

"Of course, the Machine's got a few kinks in it, but it's very close to completion! You've only seen one-tenth of its eventual rain capacity! Just imagine what it'll do for your fields!" Aiba announced. "I expect the Cloudbuster to be fully operational by midsummer. Your harvests will not suffer!"

The crowd thundered its approval as the men covered up the machine once more, and Matsumoto's servant Satoshi gently urged the horses back into place. They'd bring the Cloudbuster back to Aiba's tinkering workshop so he could get to work on completing the machine. Mayor Sakurai rode back in the carriage with Nino and Satoshi while Aiba sat on his horse beside the count.

"Do you think it went well?"

Matsumoto nodded. "You made it rain, Masaki. Like some kind of magician of the old ways."

"Pfft," Aiba said, urging his horse forward toward the road that led out of Sora town proper and to the Western Wood that was home to Matsumoto Castle. "The old ways. Nothing but a bunch of quacks and weirdos, I tell ya. Science, Count Matsumoto. It's science and technology that will forge the way."

Matsumoto nodded, frowning as a few more droplets of water fell from the brim of his hat and onto his now ruined velvet coat. "It seems that way. Just think of all the Cloudbuster could do to promote agriculture. No more starving people, anywhere. No one dying for lack of nutrition. I think I ought to write the king himself. I bet he'll order a dozen Cloudbusters."

"A dozen?" Aiba mumbled. He hadn't thought about that. How long would that take? He knew Nino would never have the patience to help him make twelve of the damn things. It had already taken two years to make one. Oh wow, how old would he be when Cloudbuster Twelve rolled out of his workshop?

They made it back to Matsumoto Castle just after dark, and the mood in the air was a happy one. Count Matsumoto urged Satoshi to bring them all something good to drink from his wine cellar and together the inventor, the assistant, the count, the mayor, and the servant clinked glasses in celebration. The Cloudbuster would make Sora a better place. No, the Cloudbuster would make the world a better place!

They grew drunk and silly off the wine, wandering around the workshop and poking at Aiba's less successful ventures. The seeds that were supposed to sprout even in winter. The many smelly attempts at more efficient fertilizer. And of course the lifeless metal bodies of the automatons Aiba had worked on in the capital - an attempt to create workers for dangerous jobs. He'd never managed to get them operational no matter how much he tinkered.

And so silly were the five men that they didn't notice the old woman in the dark blue cloak perched on the seat of the Cloudbuster until she rapped her gnarled hand against the control panel. They all turned around, giddy with drink.

"Oi!" Matsumoto crowed. "This is my castle. I have a drawbridge, you know! And a moat! How the devil did you get in here?"

Mayor Sakurai moved forward, squinting through his pince-nez. "I don't recognize you from Sora, madame. Are you a visitor to our valley?"

Aiba tripped, knocking his hip against his workbench, before approaching the old woman. "Um, could you get off my machine?"

She stood up quickly, and in a flash, the old woman with the crooked, bony limbs transformed into a flame-haired beauty, her cloak changing into a form-fitting gown. She eyed them each in turn, and as they were young men and heavily intoxicated, they eyed her just as much. Something was amiss though - old ladies didn't suddenly become beautiful. Aiba was pretty sure that everyone in the kingdom was hiring inventors to try and make that happen, to no avail.

Her eyes remained on Aiba. "You are Masaki Aiba? This is your...contraption?"

He set his wine glass down on the workbench, rubbing his sore hip. "Yes. It's my Cloudbuster Machine."

"And its purpose?"

He cleared his throat, trying to sober up. Nino always said he vomited words when he was drunk. "The Cloudbuster makes it rain, so, if there's, you know, a no rain time..."

"A drought," Nino supplied.

"If there's a drought," he stumbled forward, patting one of the machine's tubes affectionately. "Then my girl here can make it rain."

"Yeah, can we bypass the machine talk and ask again how she got into my castle?" Matsumoto protested.

"I pulled up the drawbridge, Count Jun, I swear," Satoshi mumbled.

"Were you drunk at the time?" Nino asked.

"I wasn't," Ohno replied.

"Maybe she's thirsty." Sho squinted again. "Would you like a drink, Madame?"

"Silence, you fools!" the woman shouted, her voice changing until it was a boom as noisy as a clap of thunder. The men shut their mouths at once. She stepped down from the machine, and little bolts of lightning seemed to spark at the ends of her fingers as she approached Aiba. "You think I didn't hear you in the town square? You think I didn't hear your blasphemy? Your insulting, idiotic arrogance?"

Aiba tried to take a step back but he was trapped between the mysterious woman and the Cloudbuster.

"I make it rain when I damn well feel like making it rain! Leave the storms to me, Masaki Aiba. You and your friends and your machine are as nothing compared to what I can do!"

She clapped her hands and the men jumped as a storm broke out just outside the castle. Rain came pouring down, hitting the glass windows of the workshop ferociously. The other four huddled together while Aiba was shaking in his boots, clinging to his machine. She clapped again and just as soon as it had started, the rain stopped.

Nino's eyes were wide. "You can't be...you don't exist!"

"Says who?" the woman replied. She snapped her fingers, and hailstones the size of cherries started pelting the glass. "I am she who you have denied. I am she who watches over this kingdom. You would dare to defy the natural order? Already you cut up the land with your locomotives, pollute the skies with your airships. And now you would take away my rightful place in this world? You would make it rain to suit your needs rather than my desires?"

"The...the Rain Goddess?" Count Matsumoto gasped. The four of them fell to their knees, prostrating themselves before the divine woman who could probably strike them dead with lightning. Indoors.

Aiba, however, stood his ground. "Yes."

She whirled, hair flying about. "Watch your words, Masaki Aiba. Choose them carefully. Though the rain and snow are my domain, I possess more power in my little finger than your contraption could ever think to achieve."

He crossed his arms. "You're terrible at your job, you know. There are people suffering because of the...no rain time."

Nino didn't offer assistance with vocabulary this time.

He continued on. "So if you're such a great, powerful Rain Goddess, then why don't you make enough rain to produce a good harvest every year? Why? What's wrong with me trying to do your job for you, if you're too lazy to do it?"

The other four looked up from their forgiveness-begging, giving Aiba four horrified looks. Nino even criscrossed his wrists, offering a big 'X' to Aiba, pleading with him to shut his mouth.

"I made this Cloudbuster to help people," he declared. "Since apparently you don't feel like it."

The Rain Goddess smirked. "You are wrong, Masaki Aiba. You made this contraption to defy nature. You made this contraption to prove your own personal greatness. And since you show no remorse for your defiance or your arrogance, then you are no better than a lowly animal. First, your friends will see what price must be paid for fueling the delusions of a prideful man like you."

Aiba's eyes widened as the Rain Goddess pointed her long fingers at his friends. One by one, she snapped her fingers in turn. At Mayor Sakurai. At Count Matsumoto. At Nino. And even at Satoshi, the servant. They expelled a breath and collapsed to the floor of the workshop, and Aiba cried out in alarm.

"My friends! You witch! You killed my friends!"

She shook her head, snapping four times. Aiba's eyes widened as four of the failed automatons sprung to life, clomping their feet and struggling against their bindings to the stone workshop wall. The eyes on each automaton opened.

"What have you done?"

"What has been done to them is as nothing compared to what will become of you, Masaki Aiba," the goddess declared, grabbing hold of him by his throat. "You will no longer tinker." He screamed as his hands stretched and squeezed and broke, but she held firm to him. "You will no longer be a man, but an animal. A useless beast who cannot defy the natural order."

The pain was overwhelming. His hands. Whatever was she doing to him?! She released him and he fell to the floor of the workshop, white hot agony burning his entire body. He could feel the dark hair springing from his mangled limbs as he writhed on the floor. The Rain Goddess stood over him triumphantly.

"For defying me, you have lost everything." In an instant, the Cloudbuster crumpled into a heap of useless metal. He screamed and screamed. "You have lost everything! Their souls are in machines, and you are nothing. Unless you can find someone willing to love the arrogant, boastful thing that you are, you will never be a man again. Never!"

But all Masaki Aiba knew at that moment was pain as his body continued to contort and snap.

Matsumoto Castle froze in time, as though encased in a thin layer of ice. The Western Wood all at once went from fragrant, healthy trees to a stagnant mass of dark, dead wood. The vibrant town of Sora was blanketed in snow in the middle of spring, and in hushed whispers the word spread. That the Rain Goddess had come. That the Rain Goddess was watching.

And that no one, absolutely no one, was to enter the Western Wood again.

\--

ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER

\--

As the airship carried her south towards home, Rebecca Vaughn couldn't help staring out at the clouds.

Fluffy white clouds like soft pillows on a bed with fresh, clean linens. Dark gray clouds casting a shadow over this or that patch of land. Thin, stretched out clouds. Bunched up clouds. Every conceivable type of cloud and yet her pencil remained fixed in place over her sketchpad. She could draw cute little people and flowers. She could draw the sun and the moon and the stars.

Clouds, with their ever changeable nature, seemed to constantly elude her. She'd never been able to draw the clouds.

Which was incredibly frustrating since she'd managed to sell her first series of children's books in the capital. It had been a long road full of disappointments. Her father had wished for her to stay home and become a healer, and before she'd passed away, her mother thought that steam engineering was the most logical choice. Sadly, she'd managed to let down both parents by pursuing neither option. Becky had opted to tell stories.

With her words and her pictures, she'd get children interested in reading. It was something she adored as a child, shut up in the house to avoid all the dirty air of Sora. As soon as she'd come of age, she'd sent in an application to the creative writing program at the university and had been accepted. She'd written and written and written, page after page, dried inkwell after dried inkwell. Upon graduation, though, she discovered there was little market for children's books.

Even when Becky had been a child, imagination seemed in short supply. Who wanted to read about castles and magic and silly things like that? The capital's bookstores were full to bursting with practical manuals. How to repair your sewing machine. How a locomotive engine is constructed. How to build a successful factory. It was infuriating. She'd had to write something different from fairies and talking animals.

Oliver Nesbitt and the Defiant Dirigible, an idea she'd come up with one late night at a tavern with a few mugs of cider in her, had sold. Now she was to write about adventures in the sky, with some detailed talk about the dirigible's mechanical set up, if you please. She'd gotten the manuscript whipped together at the last possible minute, but there were drawings to be done. Of the skies Oliver Nesbitt sailed through. No matter how many airship rides Becky took, she simply couldn't get the clouds right. This voyage would be her last for a while. She could finish some sketches, have them delivered to her publisher, and enjoy a break from writing about mechanical parts and poring over engine schematics. Her father had been asking her to come home for nearly a year, anyhow.

She slammed her sketchbook closed, shoving it into her overloaded bag and putting her pencil back in its case. She was happy for a break from the capital, and even if the clouds were being problematic, Sora was the model for Oliver's hometown after all. She'd have no trouble with those illustrations. Crowded and cramped with too many chimneys, Sora was a muddled, dirty place. A few generations earlier, they said that Sora had been a simpler farming village. Well, Becky thought, that was a long time ago. The Sora she knew was overrun with factories and grime and a peculiar stench that clung to your hair and your clothes.

The captain announced the landing at the Sora Air Station, and Becky watched the airship descend through the puffy white to the dark gray skies of Sora below. The air station itself was fairly new, and her initial flight to the capital for school had been one of the first a few years back. She exited the airship, waiting for one of the flight stewards to reunite her with her steamer trunk.

To her chagrin, she was granted no chance to escape. Sora was considerably smaller than the capital, and she was the only person disembarking at this stop. Airship arrivals and departures were still a big deal to country bumpkins like the people of Sora (not that there was anything wrong with country bumpkins, she thought, since she was one herself.) Before she could hire a carriage to take her to her father's home, she smelled him coming.

Alaric Gaston didn't just have the usual Sora Stench. He added a none too enticing aroma of cologne that brought tears to Becky's eyes, and it always had. Mayor Gaston's son had been in love with her since they'd been teenagers, despite Becky's best efforts to avoid the fellow. Where Becky was clever and small and preferred the comfort of a dog at her side, Alaric was tall and burly and probably less intelligent than any of the dogs she'd ever owned.

As the mayor's son, one day he'd govern Sora, and it was plain on his stupid face that he intended to take her as a wife, even now as he approached dressed in his usual son-of-the-mayor finery. She wondered how many sewing machines had perished in the line of duty to dress him for the day. "Rebecca, my belle, my angel!"

She forced a smile, dropping a few coins in the steward's hand as he set down her trunk. "Alaric."

He swept her up in a way too friendly hug, crushing her to him. She felt her corset pushing inward against her ribs, and her breath seemed to disappear in a whoosh until he released her. She tried to smooth out the wrinkles he'd created in her dress, trying to regain herself. "Ah, Rebecca. Becky. My lovely, it has been far too long!"

She merely nodded, thankful she had put on her gloves after departing the airship. The less she had to actually touch him with her own fingers, the better. It seemed as though Alaric grew larger every time Becky came home. Then again, she wasn't terribly tall to begin with, so Alaric always seemed to tower over her. It seemed as though most of the available ladies in town swooned and fell over themselves as he approached. He...just wasn't Becky's type.

"I've been busy," she said. "But I'm home to visit my father."

Alaric made a face but was thoughtful enough to turn his attention away to picking up her trunk. Becky's father wasn't the most popular man in Sora, never had been. "Ah, that's nice. Family's important. I'm always thinking that. A family's great. A really big family with plenty of strapping young lads. Don't you think that would be lovely?"

Becky nearly fainted at the thought of trying to carry any of Alaric's children in her womb. That would be it, she assured herself. Even her father's best attempts wouldn't be able to save her. She'd be dead. She followed him to the Gaston family carriage where he dropped her trunk discourteously onto the street. A few servants had to work together to hoist it onto the back of the carriage.

Alaric held the door for her. "After you, my dear."

She didn't want to accept his charity. She didn't want to accept anything from him that might give the impression that she was interested in him. But he was still the mayor's son, and if anything, she had to respect that. She was pretty sure that her father would be run out of town if she ever stepped out of line. The carriage lurched forward, and they left the air station behind.

Instead of sitting across from her as would be gentlemanly, he crammed himself into the carriage seat beside her, and she pressed herself as tightly as she could against the jostling wall. It was one of those times that she wished her home wasn't on the outskirts of town. It would only lengthen the journey and thus the time spent in Alaric's company. But her father wished to be as far from the bustle and noise of Sora as he could get. The road leading to their house used to lead to the Western Wood, but it didn't go much past the start of the old, dead forest now, only yards from their front door.

Her father was a practitioner of the old ways, a devoted healer who still believed in the Rain Goddess and the other deities of their world. Her mother hadn't been much for such things, and Becky had grown up with more of a tolerance of her father's fanaticism than any sort of respect for it. He'd never forced his beliefs on anyone, letting the salves and tonics he prepared in his workroom speak for themselves. Though medicine had advanced so much, Becky still remembered the soothing sensation of her father's salve on a burn from the stove or the way a spoonful of her father's strongest tincture eased a sore throat away. Was it the blessing of the goddess or merely the man's gift with plants? Becky (and her mother) had always been inclined to believe the latter.

The carriage bumped along through the poorer west end of town. The closer to the Western Wood, the harsher life seemed to be. At least that was what those who lived on the other sides of town believed. Becky found the air cleaner away from the factories and the crowded row houses. The folks were humbler, kinder. They didn't point and laugh when her father packed up his satchel and tried to sell his medicines door to door. She still remembered how several folks from the west end came to their house with food and prayers when her mother had passed away. The other residents of town had merely scoffed at the "crazy old healer" letting his wife die without seeing a "proper" physician.

Of course Becky, in her initial anger, had wondered why her father had been so convinced that he could cure her, why he hadn't asked for more help. It had driven her decision to attend university so far away, but the time away had calmed her, matured her. Her father had done everything he could.

"Why don't you talk to him about moving closer?" Alaric said, interrupting her thoughts. His thigh was touching hers, and even through her dress she could feel the heat and vitality radiating from him. It was infuriating. "Your father. As the budget goes, we have little interest in refurbishing the roads out this way, and we wouldn't want him isolated, would we?"

Becky knew that her father wouldn't see much trouble in that. The closer he could be to nature, the happier he would be. "My mother designed that house," she explained instead. "He'll never leave it."

Alaric was displeased with this, as though not being able to control one simple man's actions was irksome. "It's been a long time since you've been around here, Becky, but I hear the rumors from time to time."

She almost wished he was still trying to flirt with her, rather than insinuating things about her father. "And what rumors are those, Alaric?"

"That he's going down the forbidden way, that he's actually entering the Western Wood in search of ingredients. We all know that forest is dead and barren as a lesson to us all not to venture out there."

"He has been caught doing so?" To enter the Western Wood was against the law. Where the gravel road gave way to simple dirt was the borderline. Her father would never be so foolish, even though the area wasn't patrolled.

Alaric rolled his eyes. "No, it is only hearsay. But most rumors have an ounce of truth, my dear. Now that you are home, it's best you warn him against doing anything that could see him jailed."

"I will do my best to remind him of Sora's laws," she replied quietly as the paving stones of Sora proper ended and the gravel began. The tightly-clustered town opened up to wide fields with willow trees and the valley full of yellow and purple wildflowers. Becky had spent so many hours in those fields, dreaming of far off places and fantastical things even with the smokestacks of Sora visible before her. She'd dreamed of what the Western Wood might have been in the past, whether the old forest might even show signs of life again. It seemed that few people in the rest of Sora had much interest in seeing the Western Wood born anew.

Alaric's beefy hand found her knee, squeezing hard enough to make her wince. "I am certain that his beautiful daughter, always so fond of words and writing, will have little trouble convincing him. Of course, if he needs further reminder, I'd be happy to have him to dinner at my home..."

The thought of her father in his old, threadbare clothes in Mayor Gaston's mansion, let alone the center of Sora, was one Becky did not like one bit. Sure her father was stubborn and old-fashioned, but he was a kind-hearted, gentle man. He wanted nothing more than to show the goddess he believed in the extent of his faith by curing bodies and minds. Sora was no place for her father.

The carriage came to a halt, and Alaric let her go with some measure of disappointment. He hopped out of the carriage with little grace, the sudden absence of his weight nearly rocking the carriage back, and she had to hold on to keep from tumbling out. She took his offered hand, letting her boots hit the gravel. Though it had been a year, the house her mother had designed for the three of them to live in had not changed a bit.

Unlike the uniform brick houses of Sora, her mother's creation was a bit more "out there." It was two stories of colorful stone, still relatively clean as the dirty air of Sora drifted to the east, not the west. The roof tiles were just as noisy and colorful - her mother had wanted to bring a rainbow to the Western Wood, a bit of color to an area everyone else considered dead. Some might have thought it ugly, but her mother had followed her father here. The cheerful house was a compromise for Maurice Vaughn's insistence on living so far from town.

The flower patches were in full bloom thanks to her father's talent, and the fragrance was a welcome change from the sterile airship and the overwhelming air of town. Half a dozen shades of sweet peas, petunias, lilacs, and gardenias ringed around the house, and she could already hear the dogs coming to greet her, plowing through the special flap her mother had built into the kitchen door and tumbling their way over to paw at her.

Alaric stepped back, clearly not a fan of mutts, but Becky dropped to her knees in joy, letting Sunshine the beagle and Trouble the terrier lick her face and say hello. What she really missed about living at home was the dogs. Her building in the capital didn't welcome pets, and there wasn't much open space for a dog there anyhow. She figured they'd be much happier running around the fields near Sora.

"You still let them lick you?" Alaric grumbled. "Are you a child?"

She rose to her feet, knowing that any proper woman of Sora would be horrified by the grass stains at the knees of her dress. "Well, if they could talk, we'd have tea and a conversation, but since they can't, I find this greeting perfectly alright."

The rear door opened, and they both turned to see the curly gray hair and shy smile of Maurice Vaughn as he came out onto the porch. "Afraid the dogs ruined the surprise for me," her father said with a chuckle, coming down the steps. She should have come home earlier. She shouldn't have wasted so much time looking at airships and trying to sell her books. It was so good to see him. Her father was in his mid-50's, tall where Becky's mother had been petite, stocky where her mother had been slim. Becky herself had taken after her mother, but her father's spirit was no doubt due to his own healing abilities. His usual happy attitude had passed along to his daughter. He was a larger man in a jolly sort of way, rather than intimidating as in Alaric's case.

"It's good to be home," she said, the dogs chasing her heels as she ran into her father's warm embrace.

He stroked her hair, planting a kiss on her forehead. "It's been too long, Rebecca. Nothing but trouble, you are."

Trouble the dog barked at the sound of his name, and Maurice sighed. "Not you, you little stinker. Rebecca, this creature got into my store of venilis weed. Three months waiting at that pond to the south just for enough, and he devoured it in seconds. You're well-named, dog!"

Becky laughed, finally noticing Alaric's obvious discomfort. He was busying himself with taking down her trunk while his servants looked at the Vaughn home with the same curiosity one usually saved for a traveling sideshow. She took her father's arm. "Mr. Gaston was kind enough to see me home from the air station."

Maurice nodded. "The gods and goddesses bless you for your kindness, Alaric."

Alaric wrinkled his nose at Maurice's words, and Becky stiffened. She wondered if her father really had grown more defiant since she'd last seen him. Going out of his way to reference his nearly forgotten gods, potentially seeking plants in the Western Wood. Even after her mother had passed away, he'd only prayed for understanding and the courage to raise his daughter right. What had changed?

"Well, duty calls. Always something to attend to in town," Alaric announced, not bothering to step forward and shake Maurice's hand. "Becky, if there's anything at all you require, you need only come to me."

"Thank you," she replied uneasily. "I'll remember that."

Father and daughter watched the large man get into the carriage, the horses seeming much happier to turn back down the path to town rather than further toward the Western Wood. They left the dogs to scamper around in the grass as the two of them carried her steamer trunk into the house and up the stairs to her room. There were fresh linens and plenty of flowers in vases to welcome her home. She changed out of her traveling dress and into something far more casual, feeling her burdens ease immediately as soon as she untied the laces of her corset and freed her body from it.

It was one of the things Becky liked about getting away from the big city, even away from Sora town proper. She preferred clothes she could get a little dirty, switching into a light green and yellow striped sundress to match all the greenery around the house. Her father was grinding up herbs with a pestle in his workroom when she returned. She grabbed a spare bowl and another bundle of herbs and started grinding some to assist him as she always had.

A year's distance led to hours of conversation about life in the capital, about Becky's writing, and about Oliver Nesbitt. Her father listened to every word, only interrupting her to yank the bowl away and present her with another to keep up their pace. It was only when Becky turned the conversation away from herself and asked about what her father had been up to that the man's attitude changed.

"Alaric says there are rumors in town that you're venturing further afield for ingredients," she noted calmly, watching him pulverize some skaros beans. "Into the Western Wood."

"That's what Alaric tells you?"

Becky nodded. "He and his father are nothing but self-involved, scare-mongering imbeciles..."

"Rebecca..."

She grabbed her own pestle again and started pounding some beans into powder. "They don't want to bother with the west end of town. They don't see profit in it, so they're probably just looking for any excuse. If anyone's spreading rumors about you, it's probably them. They're trying to turn people against you, against your medicines..."

Her father's large hand grasped hers, stilling her progress. "Rebecca, sweetheart."

She looked up, eyes wide, at her father's kind face. Behind him in the corner of the workshop was his small shrine devoted to the Rain Goddess, to the fields and plants whose growth she made possible (at least in Maurice's mind). Her mother's favorite straightedge, taken from her drafting table, also had a place there. The two most important women in Maurice's life, with him in this room at all times.

"The rumors are true," he said, squeezing her hand. "I've been to the Western Wood."

The thought of her kind, gentle father leaving behind the green grass and their rainbow house to venture into the gnarled, dried out forest made her skin crawl. It was true? He wasn't even denying it! "What? Why? It's against the law. What if someone catches you?"

He got up, lifting one of the woven baskets he used to gather plants onto the table. Inside were halcyon leaves, normally found littering the ground to the south of their home, having been blown northward by the wind. But these were no ordinary halcyon leaves - they were double the size of any she'd seen before in her father's workshop. She lifted one, seeing the deep green veins splitting them into two halves.

"From the Western Wood," he said to her quietly. "Not even an hour's walk from where the gravel meets the dirt, not so very far from their stupid border at all."

She set the leaf back in the basket. "But that forest is dead."

"Is it, child? Have you ever been in there? What we see from here is only the outer ring of trees." He tugged her from the chair, over to the westward-facing window of the workshop. The sleeping Sunshine and Trouble perked up, equally curious. "It looks dead, useless from here. But for the past few weeks, I've ventured further. What can be so harmless about a dead forest? The Goddess blesses us with so much, I just had to know why she had so cursed the Western Wood. But she hadn't! She only wished for us to think so!"

Her father's eyes were wild, as though he'd discovered some new species of plant. Maybe he even had. But what he was doing was dangerous. "It is forbidden. Aren't you disobeying the Goddess by taking from the Western Wood?"

He shook his head. "That cannot be. So much remains to be found. Think of how many medicines I can make! Think of how much more potent they could be! Think how many might be healed!"

She tried to shake some sense into him. "Think of what they will say in town! Think of the law! If you're arrested, there will be no medicines for you to make at all!"

There were tears in the man's eyes. "Becky, what if I could have gone into that forest eight years ago?" She looked immediately to her feet, not wanting to see the straightedge in the shrine any longer. "What if I'd been able to find something stronger, something better that might have saved your mother's life?"

"You can't live your life asking 'what if,' daddy."

"I may not have been able to save Paige's life, but think of how many others I could save now. For something as simple as leaves and moss."

There was no argument she could make, no way she could ever convince her father to give up the old ways and embrace the new styles of medicine. It was like telling herself never to write again, never to try and sketch again. And who was she to yell at him? She wouldn't have known any of this was happening if she hadn't come home. Her travel and hours of catching up with her father had worn her out.

She patted his arm and stepped away. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late, okay?"

He nodded, not at all ashamed of his tears. She would never meet another man as devoted to his work as her father, no one as selfless. "We can argue about this all you wish in the morning, sweetheart. Sleep well." He called out to her when she reached the stairs. "Rebecca. It's good to have you home again."

When she reached her room, she couldn't help staring at the flowers he'd prepared as her welcome home gift. Had any of them come from the Western Wood?


	2. Chapter 2

They didn't argue about the Western Wood over the next several days. Maurice was thrilled to have an assistant, seeing as how neither the dogs nor Becky's pet turtle, Wobble, were ever any help to him. They scoured the woods to the south during the day, and she listened with great interest as her father pointed out the numerous shrubs and wild, flowering plants. When she was younger, she'd been able to identify nearly all of them. Her mind had muddled over time, replacing plant lore with dials and sprockets.

When their baskets were full and their shoes thoroughly caked in dirt, they returned home to have supper and prepare medicines. It did very little to help her with the adventures of Oliver Nesbitt, but it was a rather refreshing break. Getting dirt under her fingernails, frying up all sorts of non-poisonous mushrooms for dinner, drinking fresh apple cider with her father - it made her long for home more permanently. Not necessarily for Sora, but for her rainbow house and her pets and especially her father's stories of the gods.

When she woke the following morning, having passed one full week in Sora, her father was already out in the garden pulling weeds. The sun had barely risen, but he was already bent down over the soil, Trouble and Sunshine standing guard. "Morning, daddy. Have you eaten breakfast?"

"You know what I've had such a taste for?" he asked her, leaning back to mop some sweat from his brow. "The biscuits that Mrs. Haverford makes, you remember her shop in town?"

She nodded. It was a good hour's walk from their house. "The biscuits wouldn't be so warm by the time I got back."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Warm or no, they're the best around. Do you mind going?"

She'd gotten so used to the simpler life here that venturing into town sounded like the worst possible idea. But her father was looking at her so earnestly that she couldn't bear to say no. Instead Becky smiled. "I'll have to change into something more presentable," she said, gesturing down at the man's breeches she'd been wearing on and off the past few days. They made traipsing through the forest a lot easier.

"You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen, but I guess not everyone's as smart as me," he joked, and Becky headed into the house. She scrubbed herself clean, brushing her hair back into a simple knot. It was far too hot for the corset, but she went with a plain lavender gown and a cropped jacket, pulling on a sun hat. She broke off one of the lilacs from her vase and set it through the ribbon of the hat. There. She could bring a little bit of the rainbow house with her.

Her father was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a basket and some coins. "And while you're going, I just remembered. Need at least two dozen vials. I've got a few orders due."

She crinkled her nose. "Errands, huh? Not just biscuits."

He blushed, handing her the basket. "Your mother told me I should have made lists instead of taking notes in my head all the time."

She kissed him goodbye and headed down the road into town. The dogs followed her halfway before turning back and heading for the fresher air and open fields. She made for quite the sight once she arrived in town, even in the west end. The ladies there were dolled up, not a hair out of place or any hint of sunshine in their faces. Their hands were gloved and their lips and cheeks kissed with rouge.

Her father was friends with one of the glassblowers in town, and the man was less concerned about her appearance as she entered his shop to make her purchases. The basket jingled as she headed for Mrs. Haverford's, having just enough money left to buy half a dozen biscuits fresh out of the oven. They smelled divine, better than any dinners Becky had tried to cook all week.

She waited until she was on on the way back before indulging in a biscuit. Heaven forbid someone in town see a lady enjoying a treat in public. It melted like butter on her tongue, and if she wasn't careful, all six would be gone from her basket before she got any back to her father. Her shoes crunched on the gravel, and she hummed, ready to start another day hunting for elusive harrow roots. She'd already lost two hours going to town and back, so she had to make it up.

The dogs were sitting in the garden looking lonely when she returned, not even following her as she went up the steps and into the house. "Biscuits are here! There's still three left!" she announced, leaving the door open behind her. "I'll put the vials on your workbench. And yes, I'll close the door so Trouble doesn't knock them all over!"

Becky set the basket down in the workshop, closing the door and heading back for the kitchen. Where had her father gone? He wasn't in the garden, but a few of his gathering baskets were gone. Why had he headed off for the woods without her, especially without having his fill of the biscuits? She was just grabbing a basket of her own when she saw the note on the table in her father's terrible handwriting.

Rebecca, I'm so sorry. I don't wish to upset you, but I've gone into the Western Wood. The harrow roots there are hardier than any we'll find to the south. Please forgive an old man his passions. I'll return at sunset, please don't put yourself at risk by coming after me.

She crumpled the note in her hand, letting the basket thump to the floor. "Oh daddy, how could you?" She looked out the kitchen glass, seeing the gravel road disappear among the first empty tree trunks. She didn't know how to navigate her way after him, much less know which way he'd traveled. She'd just end up lost if she went after him, and that would only cause more trouble.

She sat down in a huff at the kitchen table, wishing he wouldn't put himself at such risk for a few roots. But worrying wouldn't get her anywhere. Instead she took her sketchpad and the two remaining biscuits and headed for the flower fields. Focusing on her artwork for a few hours would be a good enough distraction from her father's mischief. She walked deliberately away from the Western Wood, focusing instead on the smokestacks in town. She doodled pictures, imagining them as Oliver Nesbitt's hometown. She added a few airship blobs to the sky.

The long summer day passed slowly, and she finally turned back as the sun began to set. She'd probably be a little sunburned, nothing her father's salves couldn't lessen. She prepared some food for the dogs and sat at the kitchen table to wait, watching the sky turn from orange to dark blue to pitch black, and panic started to bubble in her stomach. Sunset had come and gone, and her father wasn't home.

She waited and waited, and it was only when she felt the dogs nudging her legs that she realized she'd fallen asleep at the table. She dragged herself to bed, trying not to imagine the worst.

\--

Morning came once more, and the dogs were quieter than usual, most likely because they sensed something was amiss with Maurice still being gone. She dressed quickly and headed out the door and to the west. Morning dew still tickled the grass as she walked down the gravel road toward the Western Wood.

Becky paused at the edge of the trees. What was she doing? What would happen if she got lost or hurt? What if her father came looking for her and got lost himself? She stood, staring ahead into the empty, tangled mess of branches that went on as far as she could see. There was no way she could go into town, try and organize a search party. He'd be arrested as soon as they found him. All of this for some roots!

She sat down on an old stump, counting the rings in her frustration. Maybe he'd just gotten turned around, made camp for the night. She remembered that had happened often when she was a child, recalling her mother's frustration as he turned up a day late with no apology and a basket full of berries. But that was different. That was a different kind of forest. Who knew what kind of dangerous beasts roamed deeper in the Western Wood? In town, parents liked to tell children about monsters who would snatch up disobeying youngsters and eat them.

But Becky heard nothing from where she was sitting. The Western Wood was vast. And the silence was almost more terrifying than the thought of creatures lurking within.

She got up, heading back to the house. If only Sunshine and Trouble had been born as bloodhounds. She was startled at the sight of the Gaston family carriage that was just pulling up in front of her house. Luckily the occupant hadn't emerged, and she was able to sneak around the back, hopefully not giving the impression that she'd come from the forbidden forest. There was little time to make herself presentable, and quite frankly, the less presentable she looked in front of Alaric Gaston, the better.

He knocked hard on the door, and she pulled it open after his second round of knocking. "Alaric."

He had clearly expected her father to answer. He was dressed in his best clothes, and she didn't even know they made linen suits for men his size. "Oh, Rebecca. Good morning to you. Is your father at home?"

But what business did Alaric Gaston have with her father anyhow? She tried to get her panic to subside, trying her best to think quickly. She closed the door behind her, ushering him off the porch and down the steps. "He's in the south woods, looking for harrow roots."

"And when will he return?"

They made their way past the old well behind the house. "Well, when he gets it in his mind to dig around in the dirt, he could be gone all day. Last night, it was well after dark when he returned, and this morning he left without even pausing for breakfast."

"Hmm, well..."

They left the house and the carriage behind, heading across the gravel into the wildflower fields, descending further and further down into the valley. She wasn't sure how long she planned to lead Alaric around, but the last place she wanted him was inside her home or near the Western Wood. "Is there something you need to say to my father that you can't say to me?"

"It's so rare that I get to have a glimpse of you, Rebecca. You stay longer and longer in the capital, away from Sora." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, all too possessively. Oh no, she thought. She knew exactly what he meant to ask her father. "I thought that now that I had an opportunity and you were around, I had to take advantage of it. In case it's my last chance."

She shook her way out of his embrace, walking with more purpose. "Whatever you've got in mind, I'll be leaving for the capital again soon. I won't be staying in Sora."

"Not even if you were my wife?" She stopped, not daring to turn around. Of all the days for her father to run off into a place he'd get arrested for being in! "Just think of it, my darling. Me, one day the mayor of Sora. You, the wife of a leader, raising healthy, beautiful children and serving as a cheerful hostess."

She wanted none of those things. Well, she wouldn't mind children, so long as they weren't Alaric's. "I'm afraid you've made a poor choice in me, Alaric. I'm flattered, truly, that you think so highly of me." She wrung her hands, wanting to race back to the house and bolt the door. "But my life is in the capital now, with my writing. I could never give all of that up, everything I've worked for."

His hand found her shoulder. "You've seen enough of the world, haven't you? Writing stories is all well and good, but isn't it time you faced reality? You're twenty-seven years old, the same as me, and your prospects grow duller with each passing year..."

She scowled at the insinuation, wanting to break his fingers as they sunk in to grasp hold of her all the tighter. "Please let me go."

He turned her around, grasping hold of her chin roughly. "He's not in the south woods, is he? Are you protecting him? You think I'm a fool?"

"Alaric, let go of me."

He crushed her against him, and she could only smell the stench of Sora and his horrible cologne. "You'll marry me, Rebecca Vaughn. Or I will cut down every tree in that Wood until we find your father, and he'll defy me and my father no more. Is that what you want? To see your father pilloried in the town square? To see all his potions and silly trinkets burned?"

Blackmail then. He would blackmail her into marriage. But what was to guarantee her father's safety even if she agreed to surrender herself to him? She knew Alaric Gaston was a fool, but a fool with power was truly dangerous. She struggled in his arms, unable to stomp down on his foot the way she wished. She'd probably just hurt herself more in the process. "Release me. Please!"

He attempted to kiss her, and she turned her face away, feeling his open mouth leaving a wet trail across her cheek. She squeezed her eyes shut, worrying that he would dare to lay them down in the grass and claim her right there in the midst of the wildflowers, right under the noses of his servants. He grabbed hold of her hair, loosening the knot she'd tied it in, pulling her so they were eye to eye. "I'll give you one week for an answer."

And then he was walking away, leaving her in the field as he stomped off to his carriage. She heard the horses start to trot off as the carriage kicked up gravel along the road. He was gone once more. She wiped her cheek furiously, her entire body overwhelmed with her rage and terror as she hurried back to the house. The dogs seemed confused as she ran up the steps, opening and slamming the door behind her.

She made it all the way to her room before she cried. Angry tears for her father's casual flaunting of the law, terrified tears for the thought of marrying Alaric Gaston. She could leave her father a note and take the first locomotive back to the capital, but it would be nothing but cowardice. If she left him now, who knew what Alaric would do to him? Life had been simpler when she'd simply been trying to work on Oliver Nesbitt's world.

She cleaned herself up, changing into a simple red blouse and gray breeches to match her darkening mood and letting her hair down and wild. She was just swapping for a pair of boots to wear, heart set on the Western Wood and a desperate search for Maurice Vaughn when she heard the humming from overhead. The dogs started to bark and howl. Had Alaric returned? What would he do now?

Boots laced, she hurried down the steps and opened the front door. For once, Trouble and Sunshine didn't bolt after her, instead cowering in a corner of the kitchen. What she saw once she got outside was shocking indeed, and she nearly tripped down the back stairs. Before her, landing just across the gravel road in the wildflower field was a dirigible with a shimmering silver balloon and small black gondola. Unlike the airship that had taken her from the capital, this one was far smaller. The balloon was no larger than the roof of the rainbow house behind her, and the gondola only looked large enough for the pilot and maybe a few passengers. It was probably a personal, family craft. Those were indeed luxuries.

It was mooring itself in the field rather than at the air station. She hurried forward, wondering if the pilot or passengers were in trouble or if the dirigible itself was malfunctioning. Becky didn't know how to fix one of course, since she hadn't become an engineer, but she had a house full of medicine if it was a problem with the passengers. As she got closer, she tried looking through the glass windows. Nobody had come out. She was only a few yards away when the door to the gondola slid open with a whoosh, revealing the pilot.

Becky nearly fell back. It wasn't human. The gondola dipped under the weight of heavy metal legs, and one gleaming foot sank down into the grass. This wasn't real. Maybe she'd fallen asleep. Perhaps she was still in the house, and all the business with Alaric had sent her into a crazy dream. Because the...thing standing before her was not a person. It was shaped like one or built to resemble one but...

"I don't suppose you've seen an automaton before. Of course you wouldn't," the thing said, making Becky's eyes widen. It was taller than Becky with thin limbs, but the face was fairly blank. Only dark slits where eyes, a nose, and a mouth would be. Where had its voice come from? It had been a male voice, higher in pitch than her father or Alaric and with a detectable attitude.

Since this was obviously a crazy dream, Becky decided to play along. "I've never seen anything like you. What was your name again?"

The metallic creature leaned back against the gondola wall, almost as casually as a human would save for the squeaking thump of metal against metal. "I'm an automaton. A self-operating machine."

"You're a machine. Shaped like a man."

It nodded. "Well, this isn't really me." It thumped itself in the head slightly. "I mean, I'm in here, but this isn't my body."

"Right." She was talking to a machine. A walking, talking machine with a human voice.

He set one foot back onto the gondola. "Well, since I haven't sent you off screaming, you mind getting on board already? Your presence is requested."

She crossed her arms. And the machine was ordering her around? What on earth did this dream mean? "My presence is requested? By whom? I'm not getting inside that ship with you."

"Very well. Your father said it was foolish to try and persuade you, but what can I say, we're a persistent bunch..."

She gasped, mood changing in an instant. "My father? Where is my father?" This was no dream, it couldn't be. Not now. The dirigible had seemed to come flying over the Western Wood, hadn't it? What on earth had happened? She marched right up to him, looking right into the automaton's blank face. "Have you kidnapped him?"

"That's three questions," the automaton said with a very noticeable sigh. "The first, if you are the Rebecca who lives in that colorful house back there, then yes, your father. Where is he? He's at Matsumoto Castle. And have we kidnapped him? Yes."

Rather straightforward for a walking, talking contraption. She stepped right onto the gondola, spying a metal bench bolted to the floor right behind the operating console. The automaton watched her, cocking its head in seeming amusement. "Yes, I'm Rebecca. And my father has me worried sick." What had her father gotten mixed up in? He'd gone into the forest for plants and gotten himself kidnapped by automatons with airships? Were there more like this pilot here? And a castle? "Take me to him. Now."

"That was easier than Sho thought it would be," it remarked, sliding the door closed. Sho? Who was Sho? Did these creatures have names? Who was controlling them? She'd never seen anything like it before.

"Tell me what you've done with my father."

"But we've only just met. I don't want to spoil all my secrets..."

She stomped on the gondola's metal floor. "You bucket of bolts, what are you doing to my father? People from Sora can't go into the Western Wood and if anyone finds out he has..."

The automaton actually laughed, eerier still since its face remained as blank and impassive as it would forever. It headed for the control panel. "Rebecca, I think I like you already. Ah, and if you could kindly prepare for liftoff, I'm not the best pilot."

She clung to the iron rail running along the side of the gondola, nearly lurching off the bench as the automaton turned several cranks and sent the dirigible straight up into the sky. Everything had happened so quickly that reality came flooding back. Her rainbow house and the dogs within, growing smaller and smaller beneath her. The road heading back east toward the spires and smokestacks of Sora and the mansion where Alaric's carriage would be returning to soon. And now, beneath them as the dirigible glided forward, the dead trees of the Western Wood.

The automaton seemed to notice her sudden silence. He continued to adjust various knobs and levers as they flew. It was a shakier ride, but she wasn't sure if it was due to an automaton pilot or the smaller size of the vessel. He spoke to her far more gently. His voice seemed to echo from within the metallic body, almost like a knight in a suit of armor.

"If you'd like to put a name with a face, I can't much help you. You'll find that we all have the same attractive face. But if you remember my voice, I'm Nino. My real name's a lot longer, but I don't suppose that matters to you."

Nino. An automaton named Nino. And there was a Sho, too. There were at least two odd beings stomping around the Western Wood with metal bodies and blank faces. "I assure you, if my father has trespassed on your...land, he didn't do so intentionally. He's a healer and was looking for plants to use in his medicines."

"I know."

"So what is the problem? Why are you holding him? You'll find that we're not a wealthy family, and if it's a ransom you wish from us or any sort of monetary..."

"Can you just...be quiet, please?" Nino asked, exasperated. "I'm trying to fly here."

"Will you at least tell me..."

He turned to look back at her. "No. Look, we haven't hurt him, and we have no plans to do so, alright? Now shut your mouth, Breeches."

"Breeches?"

He turned back to the console. If he had a man's face, he'd be smirking. She could detect it in his tone. "You dress like a man, Breeches. It suits you."

Nino said nothing else for the duration of the flight.

\--

The dirigible was not as speedy as the ones that traveled long distances, but finally a white stone castle with red spires appeared along the horizon. The trees of the Western Wood were not all dead, just as her father had told her. At some point, life had seemingly returned, and the forest they glided over was full of lush, ancient pines soaring into the skies. The castle, Matsumoto Castle the automaton had noted upon their meeting, was large with several towers. It was surrounded by a moat and lay just beyond the vast Western Wood.

It seemed as though the road from Sora went straight through the forest and had at one point ended up here, at the winding road to the drawbridge of Matsumoto Castle. Nino said nothing, focusing on the console as the dirigible descended. Once they'd moved lower, within the castle's outer walls, Becky could see lifeless gardens and wilted trees. They landed right inside the central courtyard, which seemed to be the mooring point for the dirigible. Despite his claims about poor piloting skills, Nino landed the vessel with surprising gentleness.

Nino shut everything down, and Becky listened to the hiss of steam as the combustion engine whirred to a halt. He turned and moved to the door. "Are you taking me to my father?" she asked.

"He's with Jun. Negotiating still, I imagine."

"Negotiating what?" she asked him as he slid open the door and stepped down onto the hard gray stone of the courtyard. Jun...a third automaton? Nino held out a metal hand for her, but she ignored him and stepped down without his assistance. He'd still kidnapped her father.

There was a noisy clamor, and Nino sighed. "Ah, that would be Sho."

Another automaton, this one with a slightly more polished exterior and wearing a red tweed jacket over its metallic body, came hurrying over. Nino had been right - the faces wore the same blank expressions, but at least she could tell Sho and Nino apart. Nino was the naked automaton.

"You got her to come!" the Sho automaton cried. His voice was deeper than Nino's, a bit more posh in tone. Almost like one of the professors she'd had in university. "I can't believe you got her to come with you!"

Nino set to work tethering the balloon to several ballasts that had been set around the courtyard. "My powers of persuasion have always been better than yours."

She stood nervously as the jacketed automaton looked her up and down. "You'll forgive me, but it's been ages since we've had any visitors around here..."

"...that doesn't mean you can look at her like a piece of meat, you know!" Nino called from one of the ballasts on the far side of the courtyard.

"Ah, please forgive me," Sho apologized, inclining his head with a metallic squeak. "My name is Sho Sakurai. I am...I guess I am what you see before you."

"I'd like to see my father."

He extended his arm with another squeak. "If you'd be so kind as to follow me, Miss Vaughn, we'll get this whole situation settled."

She turned back to look at Nino, tying as best he could with his clumsy metal fingers. He nodded for her to go on ahead. Sho led the way out of the courtyard and through large wooden double doors. It was mid-afternoon and warm, and the castle within was cool. The floors were tiled in a black and white checkerboard pattern with dingy red rugs that muffled Sho's footsteps slightly as he clomped along. He was a taller automaton model than Nino, and if Becky wasn't so worried for her father she would have asked him why he wore a jacket.

"We found your father last night," Sho explained. "We know he's been wandering into the forest for several months now, but he'd come so far this time that we thought it was worth asking him to come inside. Of course, it's difficult for us to approach anyone so he was scared. I do apologize for frightening him, Miss Vaughn." He led her past several closed and shuttered rooms to a grand staircase in the main hall. Matsumoto Castle had once been rather opulent, but what had happened here?

They took the stairs to the second floor where Sho stopped them in front of another set of double doors at the top of the landing. "This castle is the home of Count Jun Matsumoto. You'll see that he is like me and like Nino. He can sometimes have a frightful temper, but don't be afraid. He's really more bark than bite, he just...Miss Vaughn, the arrival of your father is something we thought would never happen. It's like a miracle, so I want you to know we haven't mistreated him."

She was still so confused. What did automatons need her father for? Had they given him a stroke? What was the purpose of all this? Why were there walking, talking machines in a castle that had clearly seen better days? But she nodded anyhow. Her father was behind these doors.

Sho knocked twice and opened the door. Becky pushed past him to find her father sitting in a plush upholstered chair beside a seated automaton in a violet coat. It seemed that clothing for the automatons was more standard than she'd expected - maybe Nino was the strange one in their little group. Her father nearly dropped the teacup in his hand, hurriedly setting it on a saucer before launching himself from the chair and rushing to her.

She could feel tears in her eyes as they embraced, and she felt her father's strong arms around her. "Oh Becky, sweetheart, I'm so sorry for having worried you!"

She squeezed him as tightly as she dared, finally feeling something solid and safe again. She'd been forced into Alaric's arms earlier that day and then whisked away in a dirigible piloted by something that couldn't possibly exist. "Why did you go into the Western Wood? How could you do such a dangerous thing?"

He cupped her face in his hands, looking embarrassed. "My sweet girl. Oh, my sweet girl." He backed away from her. "Why did you come? You should have stayed home! Oh, what have you done?"

"What? What do you mean why did I come? I was worried about you! I wanted to know you were safe!" He was looking so frightened, so unlike himself. She turned to stare at the automaton still sitting in the other chair, observing their reunion. Count Matsumoto? How had a mere machine risen to such a title? "You! You there, what have you done to him?"

She heard Sho close the door, making two automatons and two humans in the room. Count Matsumoto stood, and if Becky had to say, the machine had a remarkable air to him, as though there truly was an aristocrat stashed inside the metal. "Your father has agreed to assist a friend of ours."

Becky put her hands on her hips, looking from the purple-jacketed blank face to the red-jacketed blank face. Her father had nearly collapsed back into the chair. "You have friends?" she asked in disbelief. "You've spoken to my father. You know he makes curative potions and aids for humans, don't you? If you need some extra oil or need a screw tightened, I'm afraid your best bet is one of the tinkerers in town!"

"I never said our friend was mechanical," Matsumoto countered, gripping the back of his chair. "Our friend has been cursed with a most unfortunate malady, and since your father appears to be so skilled with medicine, we've recruited his services in order to cure him."

Sho interrupted. "It's all very difficult to explain, Miss Vaughn. Our friend is...well, he..."

"You don't have to tell her anything," Matsumoto snapped. "Our business is with this man right here." He looked over at her father. "He has agreed to make a special potion for our friend."

"As I've told you before, Count Matsumoto," her father finally spoke, sounding defeated, "that particular potion requires fermented adaliaga extract. That portion alone will take several months to brew..."

Count Matsumoto knocked the chair back angrily, his strength inhuman. It made Becky jump away in fright, longing for the far more jovial behavior of the automaton who'd piloted the dirigible. "So you say. So you've been telling us all day! And how are we to know that's not a lie?"

Maurice met the automaton's slitted eyes. "I do not lie when it comes to the work the Goddess has entrusted to me."

Sakurai looked to Matsumoto. "Jun..."

"No," Matsumoto said. "His word is not enough. We have waited too long, Sho, you know that. This is the best chance we've had in a century."

"A century?" Becky murmured, seeing her father grow more and more forlorn.

"I don't care if this is your castle or not, but I won't hold a girl against her will," Sho protested.

"It is the only bargaining chip there is! The girl stays!" Matsumoto insisted.

"Couldn't we just send Satoshi to stay with him? Wouldn't that be enough?"

Matsumoto shook his head. "We can't go beyond the forest for that long! You know what will happen!"

"But what are we going to do with her? Where is she going to stay?" Sho asked.

"Just because I'm stuck in this stupid metal contraption doesn't mean I've forgotten the basic rules of hospitality!"

"Stop speaking about me as if I'm not here!" she demanded angrily. Her father and the two machines looked at her. "Is that the deal? He makes your potion, I stay here in exchange? To ensure that he honors his agreement?"

Maurice shook his head. "Rebecca, I shouldn't have even mentioned you, I'm so sorry!" He got onto his hands and knees. "I swear to the Goddess that I will make the potion as you've asked, please! My faith is of utmost importance to me, so I don't swear lightly. Don't drag my daughter into this arrangement. I will work harder than I ever have to cure your friend. Grant me access to the Western Wood, and I'll search day and night for the ingredients..."

Seeing her father grovel before these abominations was almost too much to take. She imagined him entering the forbidden woods day after day, risking arrest. "If your friend needs this cure so badly, then where is he? Why is he not here asking my father to risk his life and wellbeing?"

Sho sounded apologetic. "He's very ill..."

"Do you agree?" Matsumoto asked, walking over to her. He was the tallest of the automatons, and the top of her head barely reached his chin. He stared down at her, face empty of emotion that his voice obviously had to make up for. It seemed as though it was taking him every bit of effort to speak to her with a civil tone. "Will you stay here as my guest while your father works to complete his promise?"

Her father spoke again. "My daughter will not be your hostage!"

"She came here of her own free will because she loves you," Sho pointed out.

But Becky could only look up into the nothingness of the machine's face. Jun's voice grew softer. "I promise that no harm will come to you here. We only wish for Aiba to be cured. You are free to roam anywhere within the castle walls. You will be fed and housed comfortably. Your father told me you are a writer. My castle has several rooms that will be cleaned for your use, I have a wooden writing desk that was my father's..."

"Rebecca!" her father pleaded. "There is no point in you staying here!" He crawled on his hands and knees to tug on Sakurai's red jacket. "Can't I work on the potion here? I will not run away, just please leave my daughter be!"

Becky thought of Alaric's promise earlier that day - that if her father didn't turn up that he would tear down every last tree to find him. If her father was in the rainbow house, brewing potions, Alaric couldn't legally touch him. This was the only way she could keep him safe. "I went back to the capital," she blurted out.

"I'm sorry?" Jun asked.

"No," her father said. "Don't do this, please..."

She nodded her head slowly. "Whoever asks, you tell them I've gone back to the capital to work on my books." She looked from Sho to Jun. "If my father makes the potion your friend requires, then I will stay here for however long it takes."

All the tension seemed to go out of both automatons, and they visibly relaxed as much as two walking machines could. "Oh, you don't know what this means," Sho said gratefully.

She walked over to her father, helping him to his feet. He kissed her forehead, entire body seeming to shake. "You don't have to do this, Rebecca. Won't you reconsider?"

She couldn't. Not as long as Alaric Gaston and his family ruled Sora. She shook her head. "They won't hurt me," she said. "You could just as easily poison their friend if they touch a single hair on my head." The automatons shuffled uncomfortably, and she turned back to her father. "Promise me one thing, daddy?"

"Anything," he said, tears streaming down his face. "Oh sweetheart, anything you ask..."

She squeezed his hands. "When you make this potion, you must promise me that you won't go into the Western Wood for ingredients."

He looked even more distressed. "You can't ask me to..."

"Promise me. I don't care if you have to fly to the capital for this herb or that, but you will stay on the right side of the law. I can't watch you from here," she said quietly.

He finally nodded. "Yes. I promise. I swear to the Goddess that I will not enter the Western Wood."

They were quiet for a moment, and eventually Sho broke the silence.

"Well, it's settled. And if it's true that the town has made it a crime for you to enter the Western Wood, then it would be foolish to keep you here longer, Mr. Vaughn. I can have Nino ready the dirigible..."

And just like that, Matsumoto and Sakurai took her father away from her, opening the double doors to see the Nino automaton leaning against the bannister. She followed with heavy footsteps as they escorted her father back to the courtyard. A fourth automaton, closer to Nino in size, appeared and didn't speak, helping Nino quietly get the airship back in order. He was wearing a simple, blue cotton shirt over his armor. Nino really was the strange one in their group.

It would be this quick - her decision to stay in a place she didn't know with people (sort of) that she didn't know.

She embraced her father, amazed by all the simply unbelievable things that had happened in one day. Nino turned one of the cranks. "Mr. Vaughn, if you would?" he asked.

Her father stepped away, bowing his head as he entered the dark gondola in defeat. Becky stood there in the courtyard as the dirigible ascended, Sho, Jun, and the blue-shirted automaton standing behind her quietly. As soon as the balloon had vanished over the castle walls to head back east to the rainbow house, she turned around, looking from machine to machine.

"Well, are you satisfied? You've trapped me here very successfully." They stared at her, and as the sun began to set, her panic truly crept in. She'd agreed to the arrangement only to save her father from Alaric's clutches, but now she had to face reality. She'd be living in this horrible old castle with machines. Not a living soul, aside from their terribly ill friend. Speaking of that friend, she had yet to make his acquaintance.

Jun turned around. "Satoshi, with me. We need to make Miss Vaughn's rooms spotless for her stay. Sho, I trust you'll be able to find something to feed her."

"Me?" Sho squeaked.

But Jun had no time for Sho's protesting, already heading inside with the blue-shirted automaton at his heels. Satoshi. They all had names then. Becky looked at Sho, eyebrows raised.

"So you don't eat? You haven't eaten? In a century?"

He moved his hand to his head, as though he'd be scratching his scalp if he had one. "I'm not a good cook. A disaster, really. You see I was..." Sho quieted, as though he'd almost said something he wasn't supposed to. "Let's get you inside, Miss Vaughn. I don't want you catching cold."

She shook her head, marveling at the strange personalities these machines had. "It's midsummer. It's quite lovely out."

He extended his arm, encouraging her to enter the castle. "Well, it's been a while since I've experienced midsummer, so forgive me. If you would please?"

The pots and pans in the kitchen had a fine layer of dust on them, but it seemed as though the ovens had been in use. Satoshi, who seemed to be the servant, chef, and baker all in one, had made a fresh loaf earlier that morning to ensure that Becky's father had something to eat. Remarkably, the castle's stores had not gone bad in all these years, and with the four machine residents requiring no food, it had lasted a long time. Anything else they required was easily harvested from the forest around the castle, Sho explained.

Sakurai opened a bottle of wine, sending the cork flying in an instant with his long metal finger. It clanged against the pots suspended from the rack attached to the ceiling, rebounding back and smashing a mason jar. "Oh, I don't belong in a kitchen."

She laughed, and it was really the first silly thing she'd experienced the entire day. It was a little unsettling to see Sakurai's blank metal face staring back. Was this to be her life for the next several months? Days and weeks without a smile or even a frown to greet her? Sho found her a clean wine goblet and poured for her. The wine was very good, and the bread even better.

"Satoshi's thrilled for a reason to cook for someone new. Masaki doesn't eat much so..."

She set her glass down. "Masaki?" She hadn't heard that name yet.

Sho turned away. "That's our friend. Masaki Aiba. The one your father will hopefully be able to cure."

"What sort of disease does he have? How long has he been here?"

Sho shook his head. "That's not important..."

Becky pushed the plate away from her. "Why won't you tell me anything? Is it such a terrible thing to ask you? It's because of this Masaki Aiba friend of yours that I'm here in the first place! It's because of your friend that my father's going to help! Can't I ever meet him?"

"He doesn't wish to see any visitors."

"But I'm his prisoner, aren't I?" she protested. "Whether it's my father or me, we're his captives. If he's as ill as you claim he is, why haven't you summoned for a doctor? Unless he's ridiculously contagious, I think it's rude to not even be allowed to greet him. This may be Count Matsumoto's castle, but I am here at your friend Aiba's request, am I not?"

He cleared her plate. "He's not much for talking, I'm afraid, but since you've been so agreeable, Miss Vaughn, I will ask if he would like to say hello."

"Is that an empty promise?" she asked, getting down from the kitchen stool.

He didn't answer her, instead leading the way out of the kitchen and back to the second story. Count Matsumoto himself was waiting outside one of the rooms, his purple jacket standing out against the simple stone walls.

"I trust Sho hasn't poisoned you with his cooking?" Jun asked, and the Sakurai automaton made a grumbling noise deep within his metal self.

"I was well looked after," she said quietly, mind as far from the bread in the kitchen as it could be. Four metal men wandering around, flying dirigibles, making food, and yet their master or their friend or whoever Masaki Aiba was didn't dare to show his face. Well, Jun had told her earlier that she could roam the castle grounds freely - maybe she'd uncover the secret of this Masaki Aiba. If she was to be trapped in this place for months, she had to meet the man eventually.

Matsumoto opened the bedroom door, and Satoshi was just putting the finishing touches on the bed, fluffing a pillow a bit roughly in his heavy hands. It was a beautiful room, though, maybe four or five times the size of her own bedroom in the rainbow house. A four-poster bed rested at the center with light pink gauzy drapery - more aesthetic than encouraging of privacy. There was a fireplace of dark marble opposite the bed and a few dressers and an armoire of cherry wood with a glossy finish. Though Becky figured the room hadn't seen a visitor in some time, Jun and Satoshi had worked hastily to make it comfortable and spotless.

Jun surveyed the room himself, nodding in approval with a squeak of his joints. "If you find anything wrong with the room, anything at all, don't hesitate to say so. We can move you elsewhere or..."

She interrupted him. "This will be fine," she said, moving over to the bed and slipping out of her shoes. The mattress was the most luxurious she'd ever rested on, and she had to contain a squeal of delight at the feeling of it. However, she realized that purple, red, and blue-clad machines were watching closely, and she cleared her throat, sitting up once more. "Yes, this is a lovely room, thank you."

Sho stood in the entryway. "Nino should return some point before midnight with your trunk from home. I'm afraid we don't have any spare clothing for ladies lying around here."

"Count Matsumoto, you're unmarried?" Becky asked, grinning. "No sister machines coming to visit the castle?"

"Of course I'm unmarried," Jun grumbled, thumping his chest. "And with the company I have to keep around here, all the better. I wouldn't dare force a woman to put up with these idiots all day."

"As you can see," Sho continued, "Matsumoto Castle has been a bit of a boys' club for years. But of course, Miss Vaughn, we want to ensure your comfort, so if there's anything you require, anything at all..."

She got off the bed, opening the doors to the armoire, a little excited to try and fill the space with her own clothes. It would be like being a princess, even if it was just until her father completed his task. "As I inquired earlier, I would like to meet my jailer. Your friend Aiba."

"Jun, I said I would speak with Masaki," Sho said quietly, though the effect was rather lost with the echoing ability of his metal body.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up," Jun said. "But we'll leave you to get settled. Again, we're really grateful for what your father is doing. And of course, for your own sacrifices. Good night, Miss Vaughn."

"Good night, Miss Vaughn," Sho said as well, and they headed from the room.

Satoshi, quiet and unassuming in comparison, merely inclined his head before closing the door after him. And thus she was alone. She listened to their noisy metal feet guiding them away - at the very least, it would be very difficult for them to surprise her since she could hear them coming from a long ways away.

She thought of her father, alone once more with only the dogs and Wobble for company. How long would it take him to brew the potion? Would he keep his promise and stay out of trouble? There was so little she could do to influence him, only hoping that her place in the castle would serve as a constant reminder to stay out of the Western Wood.

If Nino wouldn't be returning for a while yet, there was little point in waiting for her pajamas. She slipped out of the breeches, settling them beside the bed before climbing in and blowing out the candle Satoshi had lit on the bedside table. The curtains were drawn already, and the room plunged into complete darkness. All Becky had left were a million thoughts and worries, but the already overwhelming day caught up with her quickly, and she soon fell into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

She woke of her own volition, spying a note on the bedside table that she hadn't the night before. Surely she would have heard one of the automatons coming in and out of the room - they weren't exactly stealthy. Well, perhaps the note had been there, and she simply hadn't paid attention. The note had one simple sentence written on it: if you need breakfast, ring the bell on the wall for Satoshi.

A bell on the wall? She slipped out of the bed, her feet hitting the plush carpeting. She felt truly well-rested, despite her circumstances. It made her wonder what the automatons did all night. Did they require sleep at all? She looked around the dressers and past the armoire, finally seeing the sash dangling on the far side of the room near the screen that partitioned off a place for her to change clothes and use the washbasin. She pulled it once, not used to summoning servants. It must have rung a bell down in the kitchen.

She washed her face and rinsed her mouth and was just getting her breeches back on when she heard the steady clomping footsteps. There was a heavy knock on the door.

"Come in!" she called, and it opened seconds later. To her surprise, Satoshi entered with a nearly overburdened breakfast tray. He walked over to her small table, setting the tray down and pulling the polished silver lids off of the platters. Fresh scrambled eggs with forest mushrooms, oatmeal with brown sugar, bread and jam, and a pot of tea all for her. She walked over in amazement as Satoshi pulled out the chair for her.

"Good morning," he said, speaking for the first time. His voice was a low hum from inside the armor, gentle and relaxed. "I hope this isn't too much."

It smelled amazing, especially after eating her own cooking for so long. She sat, letting him push in her chair. She didn't know where to start, it all looked so tasty. She looked up and met his blank face, wondering if he was expecting a dismissal. She'd never had a servant before. "I can't wait to dig in, it looks great. Thank you."

He nodded, bowing slightly. "Most of what I learned I learned from my mother."

She took a bite of the eggs and a spoon of the oatmeal, wanting to close her eyes with how good and hearty it was. "Your mother was a good teacher, Satoshi. It's perfect."

"I'm happy to cook you anything you like. And not just because Jun says so," he said, moving toward the door. Despite being quiet, there was definitely a rebellious streak to him. "Nino returned with your trunk, but we didn't want to wake you. Shall I bring it in?"

She nodded, and he hauled it in from the hallway, setting it down near her changing area. It would be good to change clothes. She considered wearing the breeches again though, just to get a reaction from Nino. Despite being trapped in this place, she was beginning to see that the bizarre company wasn't as awful as it could be. He stood by patiently while she ate.

"Sho wanted to give you the grand tour of the castle and grounds," Satoshi said. "He likes doing things like that, so hopefully it won't trouble you too much."

"Trouble me?"

He nodded with a grinding metal squeak. "He likes to explain things. Just tell him to shut up though, you won't hurt his feelings."

Machines with voices and clothes and feelings. It was giving her the oddest enjoyment. Maybe it would be a fantastic idea to add to Oliver Nesbitt's world. Surely talking machines would win over her publisher more than talking animals. "Sho likes to chat, Jun likes to give orders, you like to cook, and Nino doesn't like wearing clothes?"

Satoshi nodded again. "I think you've figured us all out pretty well, Miss Vaughn."

"You can call me Becky if you'd like. I'll be here a while, I suspect." She frowned. "I don't suppose I'll have much chance to figure out your friend Aiba?"

The automaton picked up her empty breakfast tray, settling the lids back on. "I brought him his breakfast earlier, but he didn't even talk to me."

"Is he very sick?"

Satoshi headed for the door. "He's very sad. I think that's something different."

Before she could ask him what had made Aiba sad, he was gone, closing the bedroom door behind him and tromping off down the hallway. So was her captor someone who desperately needed a cure for whatever ailed him or was he just a sad man with metal friends who needed a cure for his melancholy? She had the feeling that none of the automatons planned to give her a straight answer. They'd feed her, let her wander around, let her live comfortably until the time came for her father to deliver the potion. Then things would go back to the way they were, and she'd be none the wiser about any of it.

She opened her trunk, seeing that all her clothes looked in good order. She blushed at the thought of Nino and her father up in her room, ensuring that all her things were repacked for transport. She changed quickly into a simple yellow summery dress that fell to her knees. If the machines thought her fashion sense was too casual, it would never show in their faces. At least it was less judgment than she'd get in the center of Sora town. She slipped on some shoes and left the room, heading for the staircase and the ground floor.

It seemed as though Sho had anticipated her arrival. He stood at attention as she descended the stairs, his red jacket just as crisp and neat as it had been the previous day. "Good morning, I hope you slept well, Miss Vaughn?"

"I did," she replied, noticing that the castle was a lot more charming in the daylight. It seemed that her presence had set the automatons into gear. Doors that had been shut tight the day before were now open, letting sunshine pour in. Had the four of them stayed up the whole night to clean and air out the place?

"If you'll walk with me, I'd be happy to give you a tour of the castle so you'll know your way around. We want this to be a home for you, not a prison," Sho explained, walking ahead.

She followed him, seeing in quick succession several beautiful rooms. A ballroom took up a good chunk of the ground floor. Its floor had seen better days, as had the chandeliers, but the floor to ceiling glass offered a beautiful view of the Western Wood, far more green and lively on this side. Beyond the ballroom was a dining room, a parlor, a study, and a gorgeous library that was still well-tended. Despite his metallic exterior, Count Matsumoto was allegedly an avid reader. Becky wondered if he'd be willing to offer any critiques of her own stories - but she was getting ahead of herself, envisioning these machines as her friends and confidantes!

Having already seen the kitchen, Sho led her upstairs, past the room she was inhabiting. There wasn't much to see, only bedrooms, but Sho had apparently had several years to learn the paintings on the walls and the history of the castle itself. Sora had been nothing but a hamlet when the king had first arranged for Matsumoto Castle to be built, settling the first count, Jun's great-great-grandfather on the premises.

The various towers and parapets were empty, mostly serving as additional storage space. Sho brought her outside to the courtyard where Nino waved hello from where he was tending to the dirigible. They walked across the pebbled paths to the nearly empty flower patches and overgrown hedges that ringed the courtyard and the rest of the castle beyond the rear gate. Sho explained that none of them really had a green thumb and any efforts to replant with flowers from the Western Wood had not been successful. Becky didn't have her father's talents, but it was so gloomy out amongst the decay that maybe trying her own hand at gardening would be a good way to pass the time.

Sho definitely liked to talk and at great length, but Becky was just as charmed by his explanations as she'd been by Satoshi's humor and Nino's teasing. It was obvious that despite their appearances, the automatons had truly human personalities and feelings. Of course, it would be impossible for them to leave and wander about Sora town proper, but they'd been self-sufficient all these years, not a speck of rust on them.

The tour concluded, Sho escorted her back to the castle doors, but just beyond the north tower lay an exterior door to a room or castle area she knew she hadn't seen yet. She gestured to it. "And what is that place, beyond the tower?"

Sho showed no sign of interest in it, continuing ahead to usher her inside. "Oh that? It's a mere tool shed. Not much of note in there."

Come to think of it, Sho had led her all around the castle and into nearly every room. Then where did their sick friend stay? If he was so ill, surely he would have been hidden away in one of the guest rooms, but Becky hadn't seen anyone. She paused in her tracks, eyeing the so-called shed carefully. It seemed larger than a mere shed, the stone extending from the tower wall and probably covering half the ground the ballroom did on the other side of the castle. She couldn't understand why, but she felt drawn to this room.

Sho stopped, turning around. "Is something wrong, Miss Vaughn?" Despite her best efforts during their tour, he still wouldn't call her Becky or even Rebecca.

It wouldn't do to make the automatons suspicious of her. The last thing she needed was for them to lock her up in the room. She'd have to wait until nightfall before she found out what secrets were hidden in the tool shed. She smiled, shaking her head. "Nothing. Do you suppose I could see the library again?"

\--

The rest of the day passed in relative relaxation. Satoshi prepared her a simple lunch of sandwiches, and she feared that the longer she stayed in the castle eating his food, the tighter her clothes would get. She passed the afternoon and early evening looking at all the wonderful books Jun's library held. Unlike the book stores in Sora and the capital, it seemed that Count Matsumoto wasn't terribly interested in practical novels. She marveled at shelf after shelf of fairy tales and stories of wizards and magical schools. Jun himself joined her, offering recommendations. He'd read every single book in the place.

After dinner, she walked the courtyard and around the castle walls with Sho and Nino, setting up a plan of attack for making the gardens lively again. They listened attentively (as far as she could tell) as she wished for daisies here, daffodils there, and a patch of wildflowers just like the ones in the valley near Sora. Nino promised to fly back to the rainbow house and ask her father for seeds and bulbs. It lightened her spirits to know that her captors weren't cruel and would be checking in with her father from time to time - not just to follow his progress on the potion but to serve as a link between father and daughter.

Despite her initial fright, she found herself settling in nicely. The automatons chatted amiably with her, and half the time she forgot that they were metal rather than flesh and bone. They always stopped just short of explaining how they came to be, but years and years together had bonded them all in a strong, unbreakable friendship. It only made the lack of explanations about their friend Aiba all the more curious.

They wished her good night, and she waited just on the other side of the bedroom door until she heard their noisy footsteps vanish. She wasn't sure if they would be patrolling the castle by night, so she had to make herself as silent and undetectable as possible. She removed her shoes and headed for the window. It was a sheer drop down, no patch of ivy or anything she could use to climb down this way. Making her bedsheets into a makeshift ladder would just be dangerous - they could rip or tear and a broken neck would bring her imprisonment to a quick end.

Instead she waited, pacing her floor until the night grew darker and darker. Hearing no movement in the hallway, she turned the knob, pulling the door as slowly as she dared to keep it from creaking. The hallway was dark - all of the lamps had been extinguished. Sho had given her the impression that she was the only one staying on the second floor in the guest wing. A candle would just give her away, so she crept along in the darkness, keeping her hand along the wall to guide her.

She finally reached the staircase, crouching down behind the rail as she saw Nino down at the base of the staircase, the candle in his hand reflecting warm light off of his metal body as he clomped along. Were they keeping guard to ensure that she didn't leave? There was no need for a patrol on the second floor if someone was going to stay at the foot of the stairs. Her hopes dashed with incredible finality, she went back to her room in frustration.

Come morning, there was a new note on her bedside table. She was beginning to wonder if something in Satoshi's food made her sleep heavier than usual. Surely she would have heard somebody come in during the night! She blinked sleep from her eyes, holding the piece of paper. The handwriting was incredibly sloppy - she imagined the automatons had a difficult time holding a fountain pen.

Can't wait to see flowers again.

Ah, perhaps Nino or Sho had snuck in. They'd spent hours walking and talking about developing the flower beds. Maybe they were just too shy to express any happiness about her presence out loud - the four automatons had been alone with only each other for company for so long. The day passed with good food, good conversation, and the arrival of several types of flower seedlings and bulbs hand-picked by her father. But again at night, her hopes were dashed when she crept to the staircase, this time seeing Sho serving as their lookout.

By day, Becky was nothing but a sweet and sociable guest, reading and discussing books and writing with Jun, working to plant in the gardens with Sho and Nino, following Satoshi to the brook beyond the castle where he liked to catch fresh fish for supper. By nightfall, she was a schemer, hiding in the dark to discover any patterns in their watch. Though they'd all been kind to her, the ideal target for her mission would be Satoshi. He was gentle and patient, and if anything, he let the mind inside his metal body wander more easily than his friends.

It had already been two weeks in the castle when she finally set her tool shed plans into motion. Tonight was Satoshi's patrol, and she imagined him sitting at the bottom of the steps idly. She decided to move about in her nightdress - if they caught her, she could pretend to be sleepwalking. Opening the door first to make her escape all the swifter, she tugged hard on the sash for the kitchen bell and moved as quickly as she dared to the door, closing it behind her.

Two weeks of plotting made her journey in the dark all the faster, and by the time she made it to the shadows by the staircase, Nino was already clomping over to Satoshi at the base of the steps. "Satoshi, the kitchen bell's ringing."

The automaton got to his feet. "Hmm? The kitchen bell? At this hour? Is it Masaki?"

"No," Nino said quietly, pointing up the stairs. "It's Breeches."

She rolled her eyes. No matter how many dresses she wore, Nino refused to call her anything else. The servant nodded. "I'll see what she wants."

She stayed back as Satoshi climbed the stairs, and Nino headed back wherever he'd come from. As soon as Satoshi reached the landing and headed down the hallway past her hiding spot, she hurried down the steps, her bare feet making hardly any noise against the carpet. Knowing Satoshi's patience, he'd probably knock and wait outside her door for several minutes before giving up. She could still hear Nino heading off, and from the candlelight coming from the library doorway, she imagined he was sitting up with Jun.

The path to the kitchen was her best bet, and the door there would make less of a sound than any of the others. She'd designed her little escape very well, and her feet were soon hitting the cool cobblestones. The path took her partly over pebbles though, and the crunching wasn't as quiet as she hoped, not to mention how much it hurt her feet. But she'd run around the valley as a child barefoot - it had just been a while since she'd done so.

The shed was no shed, Becky realized as she pushed the door open. It was unlocked, to her surprise - maybe the automatons figured she was monitored day and night well enough. She closed it behind her and was awed by what she saw. The room had a high ceiling, almost as high as the ball room with large windows allowing plenty of moonlight to pour in and guide her way. It was a far grander version of any tinkerer's shop she'd ever seen in Sora.

She made her way past a few work benches, spying all sorts of little contraptions left behind. A clock with the numbers, minute, and second hands in reverse, ticking quietly. A small model locomotive and some misshapen iron tracks, perhaps for a child's toy. Scattered screws and nails and tools. Glassware and jars full of grease and lubricant for gears. She picked up an old screw-turner, marveling at how large the handle was. She'd never be able to manipulate a tool this size - maybe it was better used by one of her mechanical friends. She set the screw-turner down and made her way around, hearing bubbling noises coming from the far corner of the room.

Something was covered in a dark, heavy cloth. Whatever was underneath had some sort of water or liquid inside. It would be pretty obvious that she'd visited against the automatons' wishes if she pulled the cloth off. She'd never be able to throw the thing back onto it. But what harm was it really? It was just a workshop, after all, and an unlocked workshop at that. Becky grabbed hold of the cloth with both hands and gave it a strong tug.

It fell slowly, slipping off of four glass tanks to puddle in a heap of fabric at her feet. She looked up and gasped at the sight of what she had uncovered, what secret was hiding here in the workshop. Her feet took her backwards, as fast as she could get away from the four tanks. Each tank was filled with strange wires and tubes and a liquid she was pretty sure couldn't just be water. And suspended in each tank was the body of a man, eyes closed, each with dark hair floating about in the liquid.

Four men, maybe her age if she had to take a guess, and from the sounds of the bubbling...were they alive? As she tried to hurry away, wanting to put as much distance between herself and this strange workshop as she could, she bumped into one of the worktables. As she tried to brace herself on the table, her hand came down hard on a sprocket jutting from one of the small gears, and a shot of pain raced through her as it cut deeply into her palm. But all she could see were the men in the tanks, floating, and she hurried to the door, not noticing the figure suddenly standing near her.

She collided with him, her head knocking against his chest. The person's body wasn't metal - it wasn't one of the automatons. "Are you hurt?" the person asked, and Becky could feel a strangely large hand on her back through the thin fabric of her nightdress. "You shouldn't have come in here!"

Becky finally looked up to see just who had followed her into the workshop. The figure was tall, taller than Jun, maybe even taller than Alaric but with a thinner frame. What should have been hair was more like a frizzy brown mane, and it covered his entire face. What should have been a nose ended in a dark snout, the mouth was more of a maw, and she turned, seeing that the hand on her back didn't resemble one like her own. It was twisted and curved - it wasn't a hand at all. It was a paw. She looked up, seeing large, sad eyes staring down at her. It was an animal...like a lion, but standing upright. And it had spoken to her.

"Let me see your hand," it spoke again, its voice perfectly human, if a little raspy. "Becky, please let me..."

She backed up, gasping for breath that wouldn't come to her. Her heart raced as she attempted to process the impossibility standing before her, her skin going suddenly clammy and cool. The impossibility that knew her name. It tried to reach for her again.

"Becky?"

She fainted.

\--

"...was inevitable though. She's not someone who will just sit in a cage and do as she's told." Nino. She could hear Nino speaking.

"You tell us you don't want to see her, don't want to meet with her." Sho was talking now. "But you followed her. Why did you do that?"

"But she was in the workshop. The workshop you didn't bother to lock." The voice of the talking upright lion. She opened her eyes, realizing she was back in her room, and night had turned to day. It hadn't been a bad dream at all.

She heard Satoshi's voice closer to her. "I think she's awake..."

There was the sound of muffled shuffling. "Masaki, come on," Nino said. "You don't need to be here when she wakes..."

She opened her eyes, seeing the bed's canopy overhead, painted with stars. Lifting her arm, she saw that her hand had been bandaged up. Definitely not a dream. She really had been down to the workshop, really had cut her hand open after seeing the tanks with the bodies suspended inside. She sat up suddenly, seeing outlines of three all-too familiar metal bodies on the outside of the gauzy pink. Satoshi standing by her bedside table, Sho by the window that overlooked the courtyard.

"Miss Vaughn," Jun said, standing by the fireplace. "Are you alright? We cleaned and dressed your cut. Do you need any medicine? I can send Nino to your father and..."

"Masaki didn't hurt you," Satoshi interrupted, looking through the curtain at her. "He would never, ever hurt anyone. He caught you when you fell so you wouldn't hit your head."

"Satoshi, she's had an awful shock," Sho warned him.

The lion. The upright lion. That was Masaki? The friend who so desperately needed to be cured was no human at all? What was he? What was going on in this castle? What about the bodies in the tanks?

"Miss Vaughn," Jun continued. "There's a lot we should tell you. A lot that we hadn't planned on telling you, but it seems you're far more curious than we'd anticipated."

"Don't blame her," Satoshi replied, and she was oddly touched by his defense of her. "You said this place would be no prison, and yet here we are, crowding around. Telling her where she can and can't go. Watching her day and night!"

"Don't be angry. We had no idea..." Sho started, but the blue-shirted machine stomped his foot once. Talkative Sho and bossy Jun immediately quieted down.

"I think you both should leave," Satoshi demanded. Becky was surprised to see the two obey, leaving the room and shutting the door behind them. Satoshi moved away from the bed and over to her table.

"Are you hungry? I brought up some breakfast for you."

She slid the curtain aside, feeling rather exposed in only her nightdress. The soft purple cotton had dark, dried stains from her bleeding hand marring the fabric. Satoshi stood at her side as he always did, watching while she ate. She had to use her opposite hand to pick up her spoon, but he hadn't brought her anything that required her to use a knife and fork. He'd even buttered her bread the way she usually did - she could tell by the fairly smashed state of the bread that he'd held it in his metal hand.

The animal, man, whatever Masaki was had been following her, had known her name. Satoshi had described him as sad, and she'd seen the proof of it in his eyes. Large, brown eyes that had been more human than animal, looking at her with such sorrow. "Satoshi," she said, setting down her oatmeal spoon. "Have you or any of the others left notes on my bedside table?"

"Notes?" he replied. "I can hold a fishing pole and a frying pan, but writing's a little beyond me. Jun and Sho write things down, but it takes them ages. Nobody's ever asked me to deliver a note to you."

She thought some more, remembering how impossible it would have been for the automatons to go in and out of her room at night without waking her. But it would have been easier for someone not metal-clad to so. Masaki had been leaving her messages, watching her from the shadows since the day she'd arrived. He'd been the one looking forward to the garden blooming. It had been his large screw-turner in the workshop. But there was still so much that confused her.

"We ought to tell you everything," Satoshi said softly. "Now that you've met Masaki, I think we owe you that much."

"Won't you tell me then?" she asked, staring at the bandaged state of her hand. Had one of the automatons fixed her up? Had this Masaki Aiba done it?

"Me?" he asked. "That's a lot of talking. That's more than even Sho is used to saying. I do think, though, that you should ask Nino. About us and about Masaki. Nino wanted you to know from day one, so I think it's best you ask him. And he and Masaki have known each other the longest. If anyone's going to explain, I think it should be him."

"Very well," she said. "Tell him to expect me for a very lengthy discussion. No more secrets."

Satoshi nodded, cleaning up her tray. "No more secrets."

Changing was difficult with one good hand remaining to her, but she managed to get dressed and found Nino in the courtyard, tinkering with the dirigible as he usually did. Though his face could betray nothing, there was a smile in his voice when he emerged from the gondola, seeing her waiting for him.

"So it's up to me, huh, Breeches?" he remarked, sliding the gondola door closed. She had in fact worn the men's slacks she'd arrived in, finding it far easier to pull them on with a blouse than to try buttoning up one of her dresses. They walked along the path to the workshop together, and he held the door open for her. "Don't worry, he's not here," he said, almost reading her mind.

The four tanks from the night before had been covered up again, but the same bubbling noises were emanating from the other side of the cloth. In the sunlight, the room was a lot less mysterious. In the corner opposite the tanks was a large contraption with a control panel that had just as many complicated levers and knobs as the dirigible. It didn't look to be in any state close to completion. There was a platform and a seat built in near the control panel, and in the center were a series of metal tubes. She'd never seen anything like it, not even in the capital.

Nino patted the seat on the machine, encouraging her to sit down. "It's perfectly safe. Go ahead." Once she was seated, Nino clomped his way over to the tanks. "Think I'll leave these covered, if you don't mind. Just kind of frustrating for me. You'll understand." He instead leaned against the workbench, watching her. "I have to say, I'm rather disappointed in you."

"Disappointed in me?" she spluttered. "I find this strange room full of twisted metal and floating men and it turns out your friend's not so much ill as he is inhuman?"

Nino's voice turned from its usual flippant lilt to a far more cynical tone. "So you meet me, you meet walking talking machines and you get straight into a dirigible with one within five minutes of introductions, but as soon as you see a scared man covered in fur, you faint? I thought you were more than that, Rebecca Vaughn, I really did. I thought you of all people could see through the outside and find something real."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked him. "It was the middle of the night, I saw something frightening, and he...he..."

"He what?" Nino asked. "What exactly did Aiba do? Did he yell at you? Did he growl? Did he do anything to hurt you?"

"He surprised me!"

"And?"

She looked down at her feet, remembering the way he'd spoken to her, the gentleness and obvious concern in his voice. He knew her far better than she knew him. "He asked me if I was hurt. He asked me if I was alright."

"And this shocked you so much that you collapsed."

"You're not being fair to me," she complained. "He looks like an animal."

Nino picked up the screw-turner from the table, knocking it against his head with a clang. "I'm a machine that talks. You can't honestly find one thing preposterous and not the other."

"Then tell me," Becky demanded. "Tell me what Aiba asked my father to do. Is it some disease or deformity that makes him resemble an animal so closely?"

"My friend is not deformed," Nino immediately said. "Not any more than I am. And if you must know, Aiba asked nothing of your father. It was our plan, and Aiba had absolutely nothing to do with it." He gestured to the cloth covering the tanks. "You see those four men in there? You see how there's four automatons with male voices walking around here, Breeches? That's me in there. That's Satoshi there. Jun. Sho. That's us. And it's because of Aiba that those bodies are still alive and waiting for a day that may come now that your father's helping."

"What do you mean? How can those people be you?" Becky was horribly confused. How could those people in the tanks be inside machines? But it had happened. Somehow it had happened. It explained how Jun could actually be Count Matsumoto - the human being in the tank was the aristocrat. The others each had a counterpart as well.

"Breeches, it's pretty obvious that your father's got it bad for the Rain Goddess. Well, your father's beliefs aren't as crazy as you think."

She listened, enraptured as Nino described how the five of them had managed to meet. How he and Aiba had grown up together in the capital. How Nino, having no other career prospects or interests, had stuck with his best friend Masaki, who'd longed to be an inventor. How the two of them had come to Sora to work under the patronage of Count Matsumoto. How Sho Sakurai had been the young mayor of Sora, fascinated by the new technology being created at Matsumoto Castle enough to contribute additional funding and support. How Satoshi Ohno, Jun's butler, had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time that day.

If Becky hadn't believed in the existence of the Rain Goddess before, Nino's description of the woman's arrival and the aftermath made her one of the devoted faithful now. Nino described how terrifying it had felt to have his soul slip out of him, how horrifying it had been to wake once more inside a metal shell with his empty body lying at his feet. How Aiba had been punished in a different way, and how awful it had been for Nino to watch his dearest friend transform into a beast before his eyes.

"He was hurting," Nino said quietly. "He was broken and in agony, but he's always put science and imagination and his friends before himself. He's kind of stupid that way. When we were kids, he came up with this serum. Used it to preserve things like bugs and even a rabbit once. All this trial and error, and it returned to him, almost like a lightning strike. The four of us stood there in our new metal bodies, trapped by that horrible woman, and we watched our friend cry out in pain as he looked for the ingredients, stayed up for hours even as his body was still healing and adjusting, still bleeding."

"Masaki got our bodies into those tanks even though we were stronger in these stupid suits. We were so angry about our situation, but he put us in the tanks, got them filled up, added the serum. And for one hundred years, he's watched over us. He's in here all day, every day, staring up at those four tanks and begging us to forgive him. Saying he's sorry because he doesn't know how to fix us. Do you know what that's like, seeing your friend get the worst of it all and yet he's the one apologizing to you? Every day he's in here, Breeches. He's built that dirigible, even though his hands aren't as exact and flexible as yours. He makes more serum to keep us alive. He's been cursed, and we couldn't take it any more. You have to understand why we kidnapped your father."

She sat there, hardly able to move. "The Rain Goddess is real. The blessings she's bestowed on my father are real..."

"That's exactly right," Nino said. "The curse is something ridiculous like Masaki needs to find someone to love him or he'll never transform back. Well, he's not terribly interested in going on a marriage hunt in his condition, go figure. And apparently one hundred years of devotion to us and our gratitude for him in return isn't enough to please that rainy bitch..."

She watched Nino kick the table angrily, scattering Aiba's trinkets and tools.

"So you know what, we thought, if Aiba's not going to do anything, then maybe we should. Was it motivated by selfishness? You try being a machine for a hundred years. Of course it was selfishness."

"You think my father can cure Aiba's condition. You think he's got enough talent to reverse the effects?" she asked.

Nino nodded. "It's hard for Aiba to do intricate work with what's happened to his hands. The dirigible alone took twenty-five years to construct." Becky had been alive for about the same amount of time, and she couldn't even imagine working on one project with all your effort for that long. "Needless to say, he hasn't been able to find any way to get our souls out of these machines and back into our bodies. Can't go far either. If any of us is beyond the Western Wood for long, far away from our bodies, the machines start to break down. Fall apart. Found that out the hard way, let me tell you. Sho's on his fourth set of arms, Satoshi a third left leg. You can see why we're so happy your father came to us."

"But you think if Aiba's half of the curse is lifted that it'll motivate him?"

"Who knows?" Nino sighed. "Maybe he'll be healed, and he and your father can put their heads together. If there's anyone I trust to come up with some genius plan to fix us, it's Aiba."

Becky wasn't so sure that a curse from a Goddess, a true Goddess, was so easily reversed. She'd seen what her father could do, and there were definite limits. But she understood Nino and the others better now. She understood Masaki Aiba better. She understood the sadness in him that Satoshi had spoken about. Aiba had hidden himself from her, trying to encourage her with his notes, trying to help her when she'd gone blindly into the workshop thinking herself clever.

Nino walked over to her. "You've scared him off a little, and I know you couldn't help it. He's already mad at us for the bargain we struck with your father and the reasons why you're staying here. He just added it to his guilt, as if he didn't have enough already. So can I just ask you one thing?"

She nodded. "Of course."

He took her hand, and his fingers and metal palm were ice cold. "Your father's working hard. He's doing everything he can to shorten your stay here. If he's able to cure Masaki or not, I just have a selfish request. Be nice to him, please? He's the best of all of us, and I think if you take the time to know him, you'll see that. Don't let the hairballs scare you off."

She blinked. "He coughs up hairballs?"

Nino leaned back, releasing her hand. "That was a joke, Breeches. Your gears are a little loose today."

She couldn't help but smile. "You're terrible." He escorted her from the workshop, closing the door behind them. And so, Rebecca Vaughn decided to become friends with a cursed upright talking lion.


	4. Chapter 4

She decided that she really had been awful, so readily accepting the nature of the automatons while dismissing Aiba as a mere animal. She wanted to apologize, wanted to thank Aiba for coming out of hiding to ensure that her injury was taken care of. But when she asked the others where Aiba was so she could speak with him, they all gave her the same sad reply.

"He's probably in the workshop."

She could understand how spending decades in front of those tanks would make one so miserable and withdrawn and sad. His friends had done their best to support him, but seeing them with no faces, hearing them approach like a noisy locomotive had to serve as a constant reminder of the Rain Goddess' curse. But Becky was different, wasn't she? She was an outsider. She didn't have a metallic or cursed body. She was merely a visitor to the castle passing through. Well, sort of. Nino had asked her to get to know him - but he had to come out of that workshop if it was ever going to happen.

Though Sho and Nino had not complained once about helping her to plant and tend to the garden, maybe Aiba would be more likely to approach if she was alone. Nino understood and immediately set off to tinker with the dirigible's engine while Sho blustered for a bit. "But it's much quicker with my assistance, isn't it? We can cover twice as much ground, take care of twice as many weeds..."

"Thank you," she told him, wanting to give him and his red coat a thorough shake. "But I can manage, and surely there are things to be done around the castle?"

He grumbled something about helping Satoshi to clean some pots and pans and finally wandered off. Becky smiled, adjusting her straw sun hat as she headed for the castle well to draw up water for her watering can. The patch of daisies was nearest the workshop, and she headed there first, whistling as she went.

The door was ajar, most likely because there was nothing left inside to hide from her. She could hear hammering, indicating that the cursed inventor was working on one of his many toys, perhaps even the giant Cloudbuster Machine that had gotten them all in this mess to begin with. But as she passed by, whistling, she heard the hammering lessen and finally stop as she took her time watering the plants.

For the next week, Becky set to work trying to pull Masaki Aiba out of his self-imposed exile within the castle walls. She continued to be a bit noisier and noticeable when watering or weeding the gardens, eventually hearing footsteps on the other side of the workshop door, as though he was waiting on the other side and listening to her work. She stayed up late in the library with Jun, finding notes on her bedside table in the morning asking questions about the books she was reading. She responded with "Why don't you ask me yourself?" and received no reply.

She even made a big deal of having Nino show her around the workshop, knowing that as soon as they entered that Aiba would hide himself in a corner out of sight. She and Nino would hold conversations about the various inventions lying around on the work tables, and she did her best to ask questions about their construction and origin that Nino wouldn't know the answer to. Nino himself would sigh dramatically, saying "you'd have to ask Masaki" and Becky would sigh in equal measure, "I wish I could!"

It took two full weeks before Becky finally saw him again. After tending to the now blossoming garden, she'd headed inside to the study where Jun had readied a desk for her to work on her Oliver Nesbitt books. Nino had been flying the dirigible to the rainbow house with any finished edits she'd completed so that her father could have them air mailed to her publisher in the capital. Demand for books three and four was mounting, and even if she was stuck where she was, there was work to be done.

She settled in at the desk with sheets of fine paper and high quality ink that Jun had provided for her. She deliberately left the study door open, sitting at the desk and pondering Oliver's next move. The writing desk faced the window, so she had her back to the door. After an hour of scratching the pen across paper, she heard some definite non-automaton movement behind her.

"Well," she said aloud, as though she were merely talking to herself. "Chapter eight, how are you doing today?" She glanced up quickly at the window, seeing him again for the first time since that night in the workshop. He was reflected in the window glass, just poking his head and paw around the edge of the doorframe. She was sad by the way he stooped over, ashamed of his size. Nino had told her that Aiba had been a little shorter before his transformation, maybe the same height as Jun's automaton, which was pretty close to Jun's actual height. The goddess had thought of those cruel details.

She made as if she were just looking out the window at the flowers in bloom while instead watching Aiba watch her. It wasn't the same as if the automatons were watching. Even after all these weeks, their blank faces still could startle her until they started speaking. It wasn't the same as if one of her pet dogs was watching - underneath all that fur, there was still a human heart, Becky was sure of it.

When she finally adjusted in her seat, willing herself to look at Aiba straight on with no fear, he had disappeared from the doorway by the time she turned around. But she'd kept his attention far longer this time. Her writing wasn't going anywhere, so she left the desk in a huff. Patience, she told herself. It would take lots of patience to undo a century's worth of shame - even if she couldn't undo all the damage Aiba had inflicted on his own mind, she could help him move forward in a way that his friends could not.

She headed for the kitchen, finding Satoshi polishing some silver that had long been out of use. After so many years, they tended to redo lots of tasks simply to have ways to fill the time. "He came to the study. He was watching me write," she informed him, sounding hopeful.

Satoshi's voice was as calm as always. "Did he really? It's rare for him to come into the castle. Well..."

"Except for when you let him go in my room?" she asked pointedly.

Satoshi shook his head with a creak. "We honestly didn't know he was doing that, not until you said something about it. He's curious about you. He asks about you when I bring him food."

"Oh? And what does he ask that he can't ask me to my face?"

The automaton shrugged. "I don't know, just normal things. What you were eating, how you spent your day, if you're homesick..."

She shrank back. "If I'm homesick? Why would he ask that?"

"He feels like it's his fault you're here. He knows you've got an exciting job writing, and that your place isn't here. Your place is in the capital. He feels like you can't do what you want all because of him."

It was true in a way, but the more she found out about Masaki, and the more she realized how broken he was, the less anger and resentment she felt about being trapped in the castle. If anything, she was starting to pray, more in the past few weeks than she had in her entire life. She prayed to the Goddess every night, begging her to forgive Masaki and restore him. And if not, she prayed for the Goddess to grant her father the strength and skill to alleviate the inventor's curse.

"I'm tired of just getting peeks and glimpses," she decided firmly. "That's why I've come to you."

"To me?" Satoshi asked, setting down some silverware on the kitchen counter.

She couldn't just hear him on the other side of the door or read his notes or see his reflection in the glass. It would take a lot of coaxing on his friends' parts, but it was the only way they'd be able to take a giant leap forward. "I want you to prepare a dinner, Satoshi. You say that Aiba doesn't have much of an appetite, but surely after all these years you've figured out what his favorites are. I want you to cook so much food that he loves that he won't be able to resist the dining room. And when he gets there..."

"Becky, I don't want to trick him..."

"Well, it's not a trick. It's...it's forced socializing."

He stared at her, as he always did when she perplexed him. "You want me to lure him? With food?"

"Surely the others will help too. Sho can talk to him about some boring bit of historical trivia, chase him to the room. Jun can ensure that the table's set and ready. Nino can keep him from bolting..."

Satoshi looked down at the silverware. "I'm not sure..."

She slammed a hand on the table, as determined as she was ever going to be. "I'm tired of playing along and ignoring his shadow following me around. I'll go right out that gate. I'll walk home, take my father on the first airship to the capital, and you'll never see us again." It was an empty threat, and she knew it, but Satoshi relented.

"Very well. I'll talk with the others. We'll organize a dinner for you, but if Masaki wants out of that room, I'm the first one who will open the door for him."

She expected no less from Satoshi, loyal to a fault. "That's fair enough."

Becky departed the kitchen, suddenly nervous. What would they talk about? What would she say to him? What could she say to him that wouldn't send him bolting for the exit? Well, it was too late now. Becky's plan of forced socialization was already in motion.

\--

She stood before the mirror in her dressing area, still so unsure. From the time she'd set up the dinner meeting until an hour earlier, she hadn't given much thought to what she ought to wear. It was strange, knowing that Aiba didn't have much choice but to show up all furry and in whatever clothes fit over his tall frame. The automatons had taken to wearing clothes simply to look a bit more human, and keeping to a standard set of colors was as good an identification tactic as any.

Becky had gone through her clothes trunk five, six, seven times, thoroughly unsatisfied with everything she owned. She wondered if Aiba would notice her hand. Though the bandaging had finally come off a week earlier, a jagged red line still cut down the middle of her palm, a constant reminder of the night they'd first met. This night was special and would probably be really taxing on Aiba if he stayed, so at the very least she had to look her best but still approachable. Jun had assured her that they'd be placed at opposite ends of the dining table, keeping a safe distance in case Aiba's appearance frightened her. She hoped the paralyzing fear that had hit her that first night in the workshop would not repeat itself, not with all she'd learned about the inventor's true nature and kindness.

She decided on a dress that had been her mother's, a dress in a patchwork of colors almost like the tiled roof of the rainbow house. Becky figured if there was any piece of clothing she owned that meant something to her, it would be that dress. She usually wandered around the castle with her hair up, keeping it out of her face so she could lean over the plants or over the writing desk. She let it down, a little disappointed in the ordinary way the straight brown strands fell to her shoulder blades. It took five minutes of staring before settling on a few barrettes: red, blue, and violet like her friends. She didn't have a color for Nino, defiantly going around with nothing but his metal exterior. She grinned and selected a gold barrette, a little showy and ostentatious.

Finally settled on her bit of dress-up, she left the bedroom, surprised to find Jun himself standing in the hallway. He wore a far more elegant lavender coat that fell to his metal knees and had polished silver buttons. "We're all taking this very seriously," Jun informed her, sounding amused. "It's been a long time since there's been a dinner party around here. You don't know how much I've missed them."

Knowing Jun and his penchant for planning and organizing, she actually did have an idea how much he would have missed it. She smiled as he held out his arm. She took it, feeling the solid metal through the coat fabric, and she almost felt like a visiting princess as he led her downstairs to the dining room. Satoshi and Sho were in fancier coats as well, probably borrowed from the Count's dressing rooms. They were carrying in trays of food, and she could already smell so many different things. Jun held out her chair and got her seated while Satoshi finished lighting all the candles.

Becky took her breakfasts in her room and her other meals at the simple wooden table in the kitchen, so the dining room was a change of pace. The pearl white tablecloth was pulled taut and neat, and the silverware and china gleamed in the candlelight. It was a long table, meant for a great number of guests, so a good amount of distance separated her from the empty chair at the opposite end.

Sho leaned over, whispering as best as his metallic body would allow. "You'll find that we've done our best to get him suited up for you."

"Hmm?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"

The dining room door opened, and Sho stepped back, the slightest laughter echoing from him. She heard Nino first, no fancy coat as she expected. He was tugging someone along. "She's waiting for you, you big idiot. Those claws don't work against my arm, you know!"

Becky's eyes widened. They'd told Aiba about the dinner! This wasn't going to be a surprise at all? They were truly forcing him into the forced socializing?

"Kazunari, let me go!" she heard from the hallway. "Wait..." She saw Jun and Sho look at each other and snicker. Becky heard Aiba's voice again. "...did he make curry?"

Finally, Nino gave one more tug, pulling the beastly Aiba inside. She covered her mouth, seeing that Sho and the others had done some interesting things to the poor fellow. His body was fully dressed, with a large green jacket over a starched white shirt. His long legs were stuck into black breeches that reached his knees. His hairy legs were shoved into shoes, and he walked gingerly, as though it pained him. His feet were probably just as misshapen as his hands, which had not been covered. His face truly was like a lion's, though they'd managed to pull back some of the frizzy fur into a ponytail. It was almost like when she put Trouble or Sunshine in costumes she'd stitched together, but Becky felt ashamed at the comparison. Aiba looked deeply embarrassed, cowering a bit against the door while Nino held his wrist firmly.

Jun stepped forward, gesturing to the empty chair. "Mr. Aiba, your dinner is ready. If you'd kindly have a seat, we can serve the first course."

Aiba didn't even look toward her end of the table, walking slowly and allowing Satoshi to get him seated. She sat quietly as Sho lifted up one of the lids, revealing something like spinach puffs. Nino closed the dining room door while Jun poured wine into Aiba's glass. She tried the spinach puff, finding several types of cheese baked in. They must have gone to a lot of trouble - they'd probably had to ask her father to procure some food from town.

She saw Nino wince as Aiba picked up four of the puffs in one paw, shoving them into his mouth and making lots of noisy sounds in approval. It seemed like a cross between a human's "mmm" and an animal howl. Becky looked down, having only taken a bite out of half of a puff. Thankfully, Jun and Satoshi had done their best to keep most of the menu within Aiba's abilities. There was no soup course, and they made it through an exceptionally quiet course of finger sandwiches and some fish that Satoshi had breaded and fried up so they could be handheld as well.

The earlier enthusiasm on the automatons' parts seemed to lessen as the meal went on, and more and more food found its way onto Aiba's bright green jacket and his shirt. Aiba still hadn't looked across the table at her or even spoken since he'd started eating. Sho looked to her expectantly when he uncovered the next dish, and it was almost like the smell of the capital brought straight to her plate.

A spicy curry full of potatoes and carrots in a thick sauce paired with rice. Satoshi seemed cheered by the look on Aiba's face - he couldn't exactly smile without looking a bit strange, but he was smelling the plate eagerly. "Say something. Ask him about it," Sho whispered, standing behind her chair.

"Mr. Aiba?"

The room grew silent, all four automatons seeming to hold their non-existent breath as Aiba froze, about to bury his face in the plate full of food even as Jun was approaching with a large serving spoon that could be more easily held in his hand. He paused, snout just hovering above the steaming rice, lifting his face. Though there was plenty of table between them, he seemed surprised and worried that she'd called out to him.

She tried to smile. "Mr. Aiba, Sho has told me that this is one of your favorite dishes. And I hear that you were born and raised in the capital. Well, I've been living there for some time, you see," she said, fingers tapping nervously on her fork. "I know it's been some time since you've been home, but is there a favorite restaurant there? A place for curry? Maybe I'd know the place, could let you know if it's still in operation?"

He lifted his head, his eyes gazing across at her. It was as though he was in a costume for some masquerade, almost like she could just see the frightened human underneath all the fur. "My...favorite curry restaurant?" His voice was rather quiet, as though he'd spent the past one hundred years not wanting to speak at all and had mostly forgotten how to do so.

"Or...or any restaurant I suppose. I mean, I live...well, lived there for several years myself. I'm always looking for something new to try."

"I...I'm afraid I can't remember too much about those days," he answered, and Nino gave the chair leg a little kick.

"You liar," Nino teased. "What about that noodle place we used to go every day after school, huh?"

"The noodle place," Aiba mumbled.

She looked to Nino for additional help, but only got his blank face. This dinner had been Becky's idea entirely, and even as Aiba's friends attempted to help, it was going so poorly. She only had herself to blame for Aiba's discomfort. "Well, it's fine if you don't remember now. Maybe later you can talk to me about it," she replied, lifting her spoon. "Better eat this while it's nice and..."

But Jun with the serving spoon wasn't fast enough. She sat there, spoon poised in mid-air as Aiba went face first into the curry, gobbling it up like his life depended on it. Satoshi looked away, as if he couldn't bear to watch his friend so obviously distressed while Sho sighed softly behind her. Nino patted his friend on the top of his furry head.

"You forget you've got a guest here," Nino chided him gently as Jun finally grabbed hold of Aiba's right paw, shoving the spoon into it. Aiba sank down in the chair, his face dripping with the thick sauce and rice. She felt even worse, setting down her spoon, and Sho gripped the back of her chair in warning.

Jun unrolled Aiba's napkin, holding it out to him. "Here, clean yourself up. Have some wine. You've got a lovely girl across the table trying to talk to you. Don't let her down."

Aiba's paw reached shakily for the wine glass. "I...I guess I was just hungry. I can't...I really can't control..."

This was unfair to him. All of it was unfair. She had to make things more even. She moved her head down, nose to rice, breathing nervously. "Mr. Aiba?"

He said nothing, and she could no longer see his face.

"Mr. Aiba, do you find it tastes better if you skip the spoon?" She could already feel a bit of the curry tickling her lip as she prepared to do her own bit of gobbling. "The curry, I mean? Shall I try it this way first?"

She heard the wine glass shatter, and she looked up, seeing Aiba back the chair up and get to his feet. "Jun, I'm sorry. Oh, Jun, the glass, I'm so sorry..."

"Masaki," Jun said, "you're hurt. Let me see..."

She got up herself, napkin falling to the floor as her chair scraped back. It all happened quickly. Aiba, little shards of glass falling from his palm, fled to the door before Nino could grab hold of him. He opened the door and took off running.

As the others started to give chase, she raised her voice. "Don't move, any of you," she demanded. Four blank faces turned to her obediently. "Just...this was all my doing, and it was a bad idea. Let me...let me try and speak with him."

"Becky, leave him be," Satoshi begged her.

Nino shook his head. "No...no, she's right. Let her go."

Not waiting for their permission, she ran as fast as her feet could carry her, out the dining room and into the hallway, heading straight for the doors to the courtyard. There was only one place Aiba would go, only one place where he liked to tuck himself away. She announced her presence by knocking on the workshop door.

"Mr. Aiba? It's me, Becky!" she called, her voice echoing off the walls inside. There was no moon out that night, and even the stars weren't enough to help her locate him in the darkness. "Mr. Aiba, if you've hurt yourself, let me help. I'm sorry about this dinner. It was my idea. I wanted to talk to you. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I got here." She didn't hear any response or movement inside. She pulled the workshop door open wide. "Please, won't you come over here? Let's get you to the kitchen. If you're hurt, you need to be bandaged up. The two of us will have a matching set, won't we? Injured hands?"

She waited another few moments. Finally, she heard him speak.

"Masaki."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she called back into the shadows.

Aiba emerged out of the darkness, still keeping himself at a fair distance from her. "You can call me by my name. It's Masaki. Mr. Aiba makes me sound like someone important."

She grinned. "Very well then. Masaki, would you let me take a look at your hand?"

He nodded. "There should be some bandaging in the kitchen. It's where I...where, uh, where Sho found the...the...for when you were..."

She turned around. "Alright then, step to it, let's go." She didn't bother to wait, marching off down the cobblestone path and eventually hearing him following behind her. The kitchen was empty when they arrived, but she saw some cut cloth for bandaging already waiting for them. She gestured for Masaki to have a seat at the table, and he seemed nervous as she sat in the chair beside him. "Does it hurt?"

He shook his head, lifting his large paw and setting it on the table, palm up. She noticed a rather brown stain on the sleeve of his green jacket - he'd wiped his curry-dirtied mouth on his sleeve at some point, and it made her smile. His paw, however, needed a bit of help. She could see tiny pieces of glass embedded there. It was more like a human palm than an animal's soft paw in the center, covered in a thin layer of brown fur.

"Let's get these little bits out of here. You're lucky I'm around," she told him, wiggling her fingers at him. "I doubt any of your friends would be able to do this as well as I can."

He moved his hand slightly closer. "Be careful. Don't cut yourself."

"I'll be very careful," she said, reaching her thumb and forefinger to the first part of glass. "We'll go one at a time, at your pace. How about it?" She took hold of the first tiny shard, yanking it up and out, and Aiba fidgeted in his chair. She smiled once more. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

She yanked the second and third piece, halfway done. Just as she poised her fingers over number four, he spoke again. "Harriman's."

She looked up, finding his brown, almond-shaped eyes to be warm and gentle in the kitchen lamplight. She'd been in the castle for weeks, dealing with the automatons for company. This was the closest she'd come to someone with eyes, someone with a face in all that time, and it nearly took her breath away. Aiba's face was definitely not human, but his eyes were.

She remembered how to speak. "Harriman's? In Russet Square?"

He nodded. "It was my favorite place to eat. Nino always got the same thing. Hamburger."

She turned away, bringing her attention back to his injured hand. Calling it a paw just took away from the humanity that was shining through, almost like a beam of light, from his eyes. She yanked the next piece of glass out.

"Yeowch!" he complained, pulling away from her. "Don't you have any kind of bedside manner?"

She grabbed his wrist, pulling him by the cuff of the green jacket. Becky was finally getting to see the real person inside the furry body, the person who'd been suppressed for so many years under heavy layers of guilt and depression. It seemed like Masaki Aiba was kind of a pain in the ass.

"My father's the healer. Not me. And stop being such a baby."

"A baby? Me?" She smiled, yanking out number five. "Ow! Demon woman!"

"Oh, for goodness sake!" she laughed. Becky gently eased glass shard six out of Aiba's hand, hearing him exhale heavily in relief. She grabbed the bandaging that had been left for them, and he allowed her to wrap up the wound, and she secured it with a tight knot.

He stood up, holding up his wounded limb for inspection. "Well, way to go, Masaki," he mumbled to himself. "There goes work."

She stood as well, folding up the bandaging she didn't use. "What's that? Is it your dominant hand?"

He nodded. "And I was finally making some good progress on the new rotors for the dirigible. What am I going to do?"

"You could take a walk with me?"

"A walk?" he sputtered.

"I've been inside these walls for weeks, you know," she informed him, crossing her arms. "And your friends are kind of noisy company, especially when it comes to walking. Clomp clomp clomp. So maybe we could talk a walk together, in the Western Wood?"

"You want to walk? With me? I'm not the most interesting company..."

"Well, we can't all memorize trees and royal lineage and the history of the world like Sho can, but I'm sure you'll do fine." She looked up at him. "You could tell me about your inventions. I'm writing a book about dirigibles and adventures and the like. You could serve as my technology advisor."

This appeared to interest him, and his energy level seemed to be rising and rising. He'd been small and sad during dinner, but he rose to his full height, smiling and revealing sharp, white fangs that were probably hidden otherwise. "Really? Because I've got a whole slew of ideas for things to create, but I just don't have the hands or the skill for it. But ideas...ideas I've got in abundance. I'd be happy to help!"

"It's settled then," she said, holding out her left hand for his uninjured left to shake. "We'll walk, we'll talk, you'll tell me about all these ideas. My publisher is going to think I've gone to engineering school."

They ran out of things to say then, and she noticed that his gaze had not left her in some time. She looked away, fixating on a brass pot suspended from the ceiling rack. "Well then. I should probably get to sleep. If we have such a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

She still wanted to apologize about the dinner, about the way she'd coerced his friends into dragging him into such a situation. But seeing how the true Aiba had finally emerged, how enthusiastic he was to have someone listen about his inventions made her decide against any further apologies. She didn't want to bring his mood down by reminding him of what had happened earlier.

Instead she cleared her throat. "One thing to ask of you, now that we've become better acquainted. I think it's best you don't leave me any more bedside messages..."

If a person with an animal's face could blush, surely Aiba would be blushing. "I...I didn't know how to talk to you. I didn't know how to approach..."

"Enough of that," she said, waving him off. "We're friends now, aren't we? Save your questions for in-person and don't go creeping around in a lady's room at night. Is that fair?"

"I...I didn't go in your room to be weird! I wasn't trying to scare you!" he apologized, and she laughed.

"Good night, Masaki. It's been wonderful talking to you. Take care of that hand," she said, turning around and heading for the kitchen exit.

"It's been wonderful for me too," he said shyly.

She left the kitchen feeling happy from head to toe. She'd finally reached out to him, finally gotten through and pulled him a bit more out of his shell. Nino was waiting for her at the staircase.

"I see you've been having a pleasant chat with our snouted friend?"

She walked past him, heading up the stairs. "You only ate the hamburger at Harriman's?"

Nino laughed. "He remembered that?"

Becky smiled, feeling a rush of bubbling energy as she took the steps two at a time even in her dress. "Good night, Nino!"

"Good night, Breeches. Pleasant dreams." She heard him start to stomp away. "Oh, and Breeches?"

She turned at the top of the stairs, looking down at him.

He lifted his hand to his forehead, giving her a reverent salute. "Thank you."

\--

She'd dressed down for their walk in the woods. Freshly laundered gray breeches under one of her shorter dresses with some less than dainty boots. As she emerged and headed for the workshop, Jun stopped in his tracks in the hallway.

"You sure are night and day when it comes to your wardrobe, aren't you?" he asked her.

"Says the machine in a purple morning coat."

He nodded, escorting her to the stairs. "Fair enough." They walked down in tandem. "You're something of a miracle worker, Miss Vaughn."

She looked to him curiously. "Why do you say that?"

"Aiba spoke to you."

"Maybe my willingness to shove my face in a plate of curry charmed him."

He paused at the bottom of the staircase. "No, he really spoke to you. In the kitchen. I think that's one of the longest conversations he's had with someone in years. We usually do most of the talking. I'm beginning to wonder..."

She was confused. "Wonder what?" Was there something on her face?

Jun cleared his throat, not that he really had a throat that could be cleared. "Ah, it's nothing. Do you have enough writing supplies? Is there anything I could get for you?"

Though it had been difficult to warm up to Count Jun Matsumoto at first, over the past few weeks he'd been nothing but kind to her. He just had an impertinent way of expressing himself from time to time - you could take the soul from the aristocrat, but you couldn't take the aristocrat from his soul. She shook her head. "I've just dispatched Nino with a few more pages, but I think my supplies are holding up. I find that I write better with such fine paper - I don't waste one drop of ink or bunch up the paper and toss it over my shoulder like I did before."

"Well, you should have the best. For all you're doing for Aiba. For what you're doing for all of us." He bowed to her. "Have a lovely walk, I hope the weather holds."

She felt a blush creep into her cheeks at Jun's words. It really had been a long time for the castle dwellers without someone to talk to but one another. But was she really affecting their lives that much? The five of them had grown so close, something more than friendship or even family, that a few weeks' company from a silly girl who wrote fantastical stories couldn't really make that much of a difference, could it?

Shaking her head, Becky headed outside, noticing worrisome gray skies far off in the distance. A summer storm was usually greatly welcomed for the fields around Sora, but it didn't necessarily bode well for her walk with Aiba. She could already imagine the automatons staying indoors, grumbling about having to keep from rusting. She knocked on the workshop door, surprised as Aiba called for her to "Come on in!"

She did so, seeing him tinkering at one of the workbenches. The tools that had been so large compared to her own hands were a far better fit for his own. She marveled at his dexterity despite his condition. He was screwing a small metal plate onto some sort of gear, definitely outside her level of mechanical expertise. Even with his bandaged hand, he simply would not give up his work. "Good morning," she said cheerfully. "Hope I'm not interrupting."

"You are," he said quickly and all too honestly, "but it's fine. I told myself I'd stop fiddling with this about twenty minutes ago, and now I finally have an excuse to do so!"

"Well," she said. "I'm glad to interrupt then?"

He set down his screw-turner with a sigh and gestured to his chest. He was wearing another white dress shirt with a green vest. "See? They say I have to wear clothes all the time now, on account of my new social calendar."

She laughed. "I appreciate your sacrifice, but I'd prefer you in trousers, thank you very much."

"It's different when you're hairy," he began, wiping grease from his large hands with a cloth. "I mean, it really covers..."  
He looked away. "Uh..."

She found herself torn between sheer embarrassment and wanting to slap him. She settled on "I get the picture, Masaki, thank you."

He scratched his head, walking to the door. He seemed far more comfortable since he hadn't forced his misshapen feet into shoes. "Ah, you have to understand. It's been a long time since I've spoken to a lady."

"Uh huh," she replied as they left the workshop for the courtyard. "So that's the excuse you're going with?"

"I usually have Nino to slap me for saying things like that," he apologized, walking at her side as they moved to the rear castle gate. "You can hit me. My mouth moves before my brain does."

Satoshi and Sho were waiting at the rear gate. Satoshi handed Aiba a basket with sandwiches for lunch while Sho opened the gate and lowered the drawbridge, which was smaller than the one at the castle entrance. Their feet thumped across the wooden drawbridge, the moat below them bubbling and greenish blue beneath them. Sho and Satoshi waved farewell as the drawbridge lifted again, and the two of them were alone with nothing but woods in every other direction.

"Well, which way strikes your fancy?" she asked. To the left was the path Satoshi usually took to his favorite fishing spot while he usually gathered mushrooms and herbs and other sorts of plants to the right. Straight ahead continued west, a part of the Western Wood nobody in Sora had visited in over a century. In their day, Sho had explained to her a few weeks prior, Matsumoto Castle was a stop between Sora and Snow Lake.

Becky had only heard about Snow Lake in stories her father told. A place blessed by the Rain Goddess, it boasted crystal clear water and year-round snow despite being located at a relatively flat elevation. It wasn't an area that the locomotive reached or a standard airship route, so it had become nothing but a legendary location. But Sho had spoken of it as a real place, in the same tone of voice he saved for reciting Count Matsumoto's lineage or describing what Sora had looked like before the smokestacks had dotted the skyline.

Aiba seemed to have the same idea. "I know it's a long way," he said, "but I'll be honest with you, Becky. I've been in that workshop a long time. I kind of want to walk and never stop."

"I don't think the weather's going to allow that. How long is it to Snow Lake?" she asked.

He beamed, his fangs not really as scary as they could be. It was just a part of who he was. "Snow Lake? It's been so long. An hour, maybe?"

An hour turned out to be two and a half as one hundred years of inactivity had obscured the pathway. Satoshi was usually the only one who left the castle grounds other than Nino's trips in the dirigible, and he never wandered too far for his fishing or mushroom picking. He couldn't stray far or risk his metal body falling apart. But fortunately, Aiba wasn't invisibly tethered to a body in a tank. Becky watched as he grew livelier, hopping over fallen logs almost like a little boy.

Their conversation stayed as light as Aiba was on his feet, bounding through the forest. She talked him through the first few volumes of Oliver Nesbitt's adventures. The first book where he'd met his co-pilot Elsie and their race against their rival's dirigible. The second book where Oliver and Elsie discovered a mysterious island and learned how to build a stronger ship from a wise old man. Aiba half-listened, half-hopped around, but she didn't mind.

He asked questions as they came to him, interrupting her narrative to inquire about Oliver's dirigible. He offered suggestions for plots, and she in turn asked about his inventions. Or his ideas for inventions that hadn't quite come about yet. He spoke about a machine that you could speak into and hear the voice of someone else speaking into a machine of their own where they were. She'd be able to talk to her father from the capital that way, if he ever got around to actually inventing it.

He was a genius in his own strange way, Becky thought. He spoke more matter-of-factly about his Cloudbuster Machine. How he'd been in way over his head, thinking he could solve all the world's problems simply by taking over the Rain Goddess' job and letting the country grow crops as they needed. His heart had been in the right place, Becky thought. He'd wanted to help people - it was too bad the Rain Goddess herself had seen it more as hubris. And even after such a harsh punishment for Aiba and his friends, technology had greatly advanced over the past hundred years, and the Rain Goddess had done little to put a stop to it.

"Becky!" he declared with a bit of a playful roar. "You should help me with my machine!"

"Which machine?" she asked, watching him walk backwards so he could speak to her face to face. Even though he had a snout and a face full of hair, his expressions were animated and warm.

"My Cloudbuster Machine," he said, smiling. "I mean, the Goddess turned it into a heap of scrap metal, but I'm not giving up. I'm trying for more of a...hmm, how should I say it, more of a 'help the Goddess' rather than 'replace the Goddess' standpoint this time. I'll make the rain come with her blessing, I guess. Once I'm human again at least. There's a lot of little bits of tinkering that I can't really do with my hands, stuff that's absolutely necessary."

"And you want my help? I've never constructed a machine in my life!" she said.

"Oh, that doesn't matter! You probably wouldn't complain as much as Nino. I think I frustrate him, I don't know why," Aiba mused. Becky knew why - it was probably the long hours and Aiba's apparent interest in bouncing from project to project in the workshop, working on whatever struck his fancy. Nino had probably lost the patience in keeping up after so many years. She couldn't imagine how Aiba had been while the dirigible was under construction for twenty-five long years.

"Well," she decided, unable to resist his request. "I suppose I can turn a wrench once or twice."

"That's the spirit!" he said happily, turning back around after stumbling ungracefully over a log.

His enthusiasm was infectious, and soon their long journey came to a close as the woods thinned out and the dirt under her boots turned to a muddy sort of slush. As they came fully out of the forest, Becky couldn't help gasping. Lake was probably a misnomer, since the body of water before them was more pond than lake, but the stories were absolutely true.

Snow Lake lay in a cove, surrounded on the three sides not forest by ancient rock. The water itself wasn't frozen, but the ground all around it was hidden beneath several inches of snow, enough to reach the middle of her calf. She felt almost horrible for tromping through the pure white snow with her muddy boots, but it wasn't enough to deter her companion. "Snow!" Masaki cried, almost as though he hadn't seen it before. He had, Becky knew, since Sora's winters usually came with plenty of snowfalls.

But what was so strange about the place was the amount of snow given the temperature. A slight chill ran through her as her boots brought her forward, but the rest of the air had the warmth of summer, if a bit dulled on account of the pending storms and the cool forest behind them. Masaki bounded over to the lake itself, crouching down to dip his uninjured hand into the water. It was almost like glass on the surface when she approached, though the view down was eventually muddled - it was far deeper than it looked at first glance.

It had been well worth the trip, especially since nobody had come this way in so many years. The pristine state of the cove was proof enough of that. They had the place entirely to themselves, untouched by time. A true blessing from the Rain Goddess. Of course, her stomach decided to growl then and there, and Aiba laughed.

"How about we have a picnic?" he asked, brushing a bunch of snow off a tree stump to set down the basket Satoshi had prepared. "I can't remember the last time I've been on one."

She nodded, letting Aiba clear more snow away so she could sit down. She probably could have done so herself, but his furry arm and large hands were a lot more efficient. She sat, opening the basket and handing one sandwich over for her companion. The walk had definitely been invigorating and enjoyable after being confined for so long - she could tell how happy Aiba was to get away for a while. Maybe deep down he'd always wanted to make a journey, but his devotion to his friends' made that impossible.

They ate quietly, enjoying the scenery. She snuck quick glances at Masaki from the corner of her eye, seeing how hard he was focusing on holding the small sandwich in his big hand and doing his best to take small nibbles rather than finishing it in two bites. She grinned, wondering if his friends had given him more suggestions for improving his behavior. Becky thought about what it must have been like, if the animal part of Aiba was solely a part of his physical appearance. Maybe the goddess had punished him with more baser instincts and behaviors like gobbling up his food or chasing his tail. She turned beet red. Did Aiba have a tail?!

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her suddenly, and she jumped a bit, seeing him dig around in the basket for another sandwich.

"Who? Me?"

He sighed. "No, the tree. Of course you!" He laughed at her, and it was a rather strange laugh with the same breathy quality as his voice. "Are you thinking about your books?"

No, she thought. I'm thinking about your possible tail! She shook her head, shoving her hand into the basket and grabbing a second sandwich herself. "I'm thinking about home," she lied. "I'm wondering how my father's doing."

Aiba grew quiet. "If you want to see him, you should go with Nino next time. If you miss him, I wouldn't want to keep you from him."

She felt bad about her lie and more importantly her choice of lie. Why had she brought up her father? It was definitely a sore subject for Aiba. "No, no. I made a promise, didn't I? I said I'd stay at the castle until he's done. I intend to keep my promise."

"Well, you're not at the castle right now..."

She took a bite of the sandwich and chewed huffily. "I'm still honoring my promise if I'm with you, aren't I?"

"But if you want to go home, you should be able to," he continued. "I just want you to be happy."

She had trouble eating then, hastily wrapping the sandwich back up and settling it back in the basket. Things had been going so well, and her awkwardness and Aiba's guilt were combining in a pretty depressing way. They said nothing, Aiba getting up from the tree stump and walking through the snow to take another glance at the lake. She had to do something, had to restore his spirits. The automatons were counting on her, weren't they? They'd asked her father to heal Aiba's body, but it seemed as though they'd asked Becky to heal Aiba's heart.

Out of ideas, she got off the stump and crouched down, hand suddenly chilled as she balled up some snow in her palm. She packed it tight, just as she had when she was younger and was the only girl willing to compete against the boys when they built snow forts. Snowball strategy wasn't so easily forgotten. She took aim, figuring it would be mean to aim for Aiba's head. She'd always aimed for Alaric's head to get him to back off. Instead she sent the snowball flying, seized with glee as it pelted Aiba right between his shoulder blades, the snow dispersing and leaving a fine dusting of white in his brown mop of hair.

He turned around, mouth wide. "What did you...?" But she was already readying snowball number two, and his eyes narrowed. "Alright, Vaughn, I see how it is."

And he was off, far faster than she'd even expected, dragging his paw along the ground until he had a snowball the size of her head forming. Now that was definitely cheating. Somehow it was cheating! She ducked behind a tree, laughing as she felt the huge snowball splatter just on the other side. "Have to do better than that!" she called out.

Their voices and laughter echoed off the walls of the cove, and she ignored the tingling cold burn of the snow as she dodged Aiba's unrelenting attacks and sent off more snowballs of her own. He was an excellent opponent - she had speed and agility on her side while he had the advantage of size. She nearly forgot it was midsummer as snow splatted against her dress, sending cold rivulets of water down her arms. They continued until the first clap of thunder sounded off in the distance, somewhere closer to the castle.

She collapsed back on the tree stump, exhausted but content. She closed up the basket. "Masaki, we should get back to the castle before..."

Splat! He'd dropped a whole large palm full of snow right on the top of her head, and she shrieked. "No fair! That's no fair!" she protested.

He smiled, dusting off his palms on his dark breeches. "You have to finish what you start, you know." He held out his hand. "I'll take the basket, let's get moving."


	5. Chapter 5

They headed back for the woods in uplifted spirits, but even though they'd done a fine job clearing the way on their journey to Snow Lake, it was still a long trip and the rain beat them to the castle. It came down in a torrent, made all the more problematic by her already wet clothes and the cooler air in the forest. She hurried as best she could, shivering as the rain plastered her hair against her face and turned the dirt path into lumpy, splattering mud. She squelched along as best she could until Aiba finally turned back and looked at her, balanced easily on a fallen log.

"Oh!" he cried, hurrying back to her. "Oh, I'm in so much trouble."

"What?" she asked, struggling to be heard over the wind howling through the forest and the rain falling.

"Jun's going to kill me!" He turned, putting his back to her before crouching down and setting down Satoshi's basket. "Come on, I can't let you slog through this."

She stared at his back, blinking rain from her eyes. "I can walk perfectly fine!"

"Would you hurry up?" he insisted, wiggling his back a bit.

She stood there a full moment, realizing she hadn't been carried on a man's back before aside from her father's when she was a little girl. It was an incredibly intimate gesture, she'd always thought. She'd been friendly with some of the boys in university, even gone to dinner with a few, kissed one or two. But until that moment, Becky's romantic life had been fairly non-existent. She'd always been so busy with work and her own writing world, and coming home to Sora always meant unwanted attention from Alaric.

What did it mean for her to let Aiba carry her? And what's more, he wasn't even human! Well, she chastized herself, he very much was underneath all that fur. What if she ignored the whole "curse from the goddess" bit? What if he really was a man? But they were only just friends, weren't they? They hadn't known each other for so very long. Perhaps she was overthinking. Perhaps she was just nervous about the attention. Perhaps...

"Becky!" he interrupted her. "Now, before I fail any more attempts at being a gentleman. Come on!"

She crouched down, pushing her wet hair out of her eyes and latched her arms around his neck, and the hair there was thinner and damp. He rose to his feet, muttering a quick "Excuse me" before settling his arms underneath her legs and starting to move. She was suddenly up higher, her head resting against his shoulder. He was warm, far warmer than she felt, probably because of the extra amount of hair underneath his shirt and vest, and he seemed to move forward through the mud with little difficulty.

They left the basket behind, and she held on tight as he carried her back. She said nothing for a good long while as the rain continued to fall. It fell harder and thunder boomed noisily overhead as the ancient trees swayed around them. Aiba's footfalls were steady, his bare feet squishing the mud. She closed her eyes, smelling a mix of rain and Aiba. She couldn't help but think about when Sunshine and Trouble got wet from being out in the rain - their coats would smell awful.

But Aiba didn't really smell like an animal at all. Just like a soaking wet human, probably the same as her. Her dress clung to her, chilling her to the bone. She tried not to shiver, almost unconsciously pressing herself closer to Aiba's back and his warmth. He was just as quiet as he'd been in the weeks before he'd started to open up, the days when he'd been more like her shadow than anything else.

He didn't lose his grip on her once, carrying her steadily onward, even as the rain showed no sign of letting up. She seemed to drift off, the day slipping away under the constant damp that pervaded her skin and her senses. The minutes ticked on, and just as she felt herself sliding into a strange half-sleep, she heard the pathway under Aiba's feet turn from slimy mud to solid wood planks.

The first voice she heard was Sho's, the rain plink plink plinking off of his metal body. "...came out here as soon as it started raining. What took so long in coming back?"

"We went to Snow Lake," Aiba tried explaining, and Becky heard Satoshi's voice.

"Nino hasn't come back yet. He probably hasn't been able to fly in the storm."

Becky perked a bit at that. How long could they be away? Was it a matter of time or a matter of distance before their metal bodies started to fall apart? More metallic footsteps and a third voice. Jun.

"Come on, let's get her inside. Is she alright?"

She wanted to respond, wanted to say she was perfectly alright, but it appeared that she wasn't. As soon as Aiba carried her into the castle and out of the rain, the cold hit her like the dead of winter, and her teeth were chattering. She'd been out in the rain far too long.

She could hear Sho's steady voice. "What are we going to do? She needs a warm bath..."

"Well, we don't exactly have a lady's maid around!" Jun snapped back. Aiba didn't respond, gingerly carrying her through the castle and up the stairs without complaint.

"I'll help," Satoshi offered, and Becky felt Aiba's hold on her tighten slightly.

"...can...change myself," she murmured, opening her eyes a bit. They got her into her room, and she felt clumsy metal fingers untying her boots. Eventually Aiba settled her down, and she felt the familiar cushion of the chair just on the other side of her screen in the changing area.

"Let's give her some privacy, Masaki," Jun ordered, and she blinked a bit, trying to stay steady in the seat, leaning against the wooden arms.

She heard Satoshi speak from the other side of the screen as rain pelted against the bedroom window glass. "I've lit a fire. Are you okay?"

She nodded, her limbs feeling heavy and her skin clammy. "I've got my trunk back here," she muttered. Slowly, she slid her way out of her soaking wet dress and the breeches beneath, struggling to poke her head through the hole of a nightdress. She bent down to pick up her clothes, stumbling a bit around the screen and feeling Satoshi's cold metal hand steady her wrist.

"Let's get you under the covers," he said gently, and he coaxed her over to the bed and helped her get settled. He'd even laid a warm towel over her pillow, and she sighed as soon as she felt the warm blankets over her. It was a different sort of warmth than being carried by Aiba. "Is there anything else you need, Becky?"

She exhaled, shutting her eyes and listening to the storm. "Thank you, Satoshi. I'm perfectly fine."

"I see," he replied, drawing the pink curtains. "Did Masaki really carry you back the whole way?"

She felt a lightness start to take over as her body finally gave in to its need for rest. "Yes, he did."

Whatever Satoshi's response was to that, Becky didn't hear it. She fell asleep, spending the next several hours in a fever dream. She was inside Jun's castle, but snow was falling in fat, fluffy snowflakes indoors. Four men were urging her along down the hallway, each with dark hair and smiles. Somehow, Becky felt they were familiar. The dream shifted and flipped around, the castle brightening.

The four men disappeared from her vision, and she was standing on the porch of her father's house, spotting a figure off in the distance, amongst the wildflowers. She didn't know how and didn't know why, but she had to get to the person in the flower field. For some reason, the smokestacks of Sora in the distance were red and white, matching the towers of Matsumoto Castle. The person in the field didn't look around, but his back seemed somehow familiar.

She hurried forward, hearing the person's voice calling for her. "Becky, Becky, hurry up!" The voice was Aiba's, but the body was not. It was like running through quicksand, and she hurried, desperate to catch up. And just as she got close, just as she saw that Aiba's body from behind was thinner, shorter, human with the same frizzy brown hair, she was back in the castle and it was dark.

Aiba and the wildflowers had vanished. Alaric Gaston stood at the top of the castle staircase, extending his hand.

She felt the dream swallow her whole.

\--

When she woke there was a damp cloth on her forehead and an automaton without clothes by her bedside.

"You gave us quite the scare, Breeches," Nino chided her as sternly as he could. "Going to Snow Lake during the rain storm of the century. Not even a parasol. And you went with that idiot."

She turned, seeing the usual nothingness looking back from Nino's metallic face. She felt as though she knew his real face though, as if she had seen it recently. "Is Aiba ill too?"

"No," he replied, "unless being sick with worry for you is now a medical condition."

Her embarrassment mounted, and she wanted to hide under the covers. Fainting? Getting sick from the rain? What would befall her next and cause her captors to worry? "And what about you? They said the storm had kept you from flying back."

He held up a limb, showing off only four metal fingers on his left hand. There was a hole in the metal where his pinky should have been. "I wasn't far enough for it to really do damage, but the Rain Goddess likes to give us little reminders of who's really in charge."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

He snorted. "It's just a finger. Aiba's going to make me a new one. A really fancy one with a shiny claw of death at the end."

"You're serious?"

He got up from the chair at her bedside, laughing. "I don't think it'll be as fancy as all that, but a man turned machine can still dream, can't he?"

She sat up in the bed, looking around. The sun was high overhead - it was already midday the following day. Her body still felt weakened, but it seemed that her fever had broken during the night. She held the cloth in her hand. Who had been in to keep watch? He seemed to notice her staring.

"Is there a particular answer you want to the question you're not asking me, Breeches?"

She looked at him. "I'm sorry?" For some reason, even though she'd personally requested he stop visiting so sneakily, Becky liked the idea of Aiba sitting at her bedside while she rested. The thought, however, made her long once more for the safety and secret hiding place under her blankets. Why did she want Aiba watching at her side? Would it be so different from an automaton vigil?

"We finally got him to go to sleep. Or more like I did," Nino said, confirming it for her. "I finally managed to get back, and Sho's blabbing about you being sick and feverish, and Jun's telling me Aiba dragged you home looking like you were bathing in a mud puddle, and Satoshi's hanging up your clothes and underthings to dry like it's just another day at Matsumoto Castle."

"Sounds like quite the situation to come home to."

He chuckled. "No kidding! So there I am missing a finger and enduring all the trauma that goes along with it, but I go upstairs and see Masaki in the chair watching you like you're going to disappear if he glances away for a split second."

"Nino..."

He waved her off with his four-fingered hand. "It was really sweet in a way that made me want to throw up a bunch of screws and bolts. But I reminded him that stalking girls he likes while they sleep is not the way to do things..."

"Nino," she interrupted again, feeling even more embarrassed. And slightly like she was thirteen or fourteen all over again. Girls he liked? Aiba liked her? Liked liked her?

The automaton perched his body at the foot of her bed, ignoring any sense of propriety. Typical Nino. "Oh, don't give me that look, Rebecca Vaughn. Don't look at me like you don't know."

"What don't I know?" she asked, fearing the answer. Aiba was many things - gentle, kind, sweet, loyal, and extremely frustrating. But he was also a man trapped in a beast's body. It was something she still had difficulty wrapping her head around. Everything about Masaki Aiba was the opposite of Alaric Gaston. Were he a normal flesh and blood human, she'd have no trouble admitting feelings for him. Well, she'd still have trouble, but more out of shyness than out of being a different species.

Nino shook his head. "He's liked you since the first time he saw you. He's kind of spontaneous that way. And we thought, maybe a little too ambitiously, that if the plan with your father didn't work out, maybe..."

"You haven't seen another woman in a hundred years," she protested. "And neither has Masaki. It's almost too convenient that my father had a daughter, isn't it?"

So the automatons' plot had been more than they'd let on. Becky was the back-up plan, wasn't she? If her father couldn't reverse the Rain Goddess' spell, than maybe love for Masaki would solve their problem. They probably hadn't told Aiba - they'd been watching the two of them all this time, waiting to see if Aiba could be coaxed out of his shell. Waiting to see if Becky could get over her own reservations. Waiting for the sparks to fly.

If there was one thing Becky hated, it was being told what to do.

"Nino, I'd like you to leave."

"Can't you tell that he's happy? Can't you tell that you are too?" He grew more and more frustrated with her. "Can you honestly tell me you don't feel anything for him?"

"He's a friend! Just like you and Sho and Jun and Satoshi are my friends here!"

"You're lying to yourself," Nino protested.

"I said you should go," she said, finally raising her voice. "You don't know anything about how I feel!"

He'd been manipulating her all along, hadn't he? He'd been manipulating her the most. Telling her about the past, encouraging her friendship with Aiba. Was it out of love for Masaki or wanting to be human again? Love didn't work that way. It wasn't something you could set up as an experiment, like one of Masaki's mystery contraptions in the workshop.

"Kazunari."

The two of them both turned, spying Aiba standing in the doorway. All this time the door had been open. Masaki moved around so quietly, neither of them had known he was there. "Masaki," Nino stuttered, caught off guard for what might have been the first time in his life.

Aiba didn't look sad. Nor did he look happy. He merely stood there. "Kazunari, she asked you to leave her alone." Had he heard? Had Aiba heard her say she felt nothing more for him than friendship?

She couldn't say anything, wanting to get out of bed and run to Aiba and say that she didn't know how she felt. That she didn't dislike him - that she actually did care about him, but she just didn't know what to do or what it meant. She was still so unsure, so confused. She'd felt happy alone in his company. She'd felt safe and protected as he carried her all the way to the castle. She liked the way he asked questions about her stories and the way he didn't always think before he spoke and the way he put others before himself.

Instead, she stayed put, body still weak as Nino got up as he was told. She watched him depart, Aiba right behind him.

\--

Three days passed as she struggled to overcome her cold. It was frustrating in equal measure to see the sunshine outside and to know that Masaki was probably shut up in his workshop, thinking that Becky didn't love him. Probably thinking that she had been his best chance for turning human once again, but she'd never see him as anything more than a friend. One hundred years of friendship from Nino, Jun, Sho, and Satoshi hadn't been enough - hers was just a drop in the bucket.

She'd stayed shut up in her room, most of her contact being with Satoshi who diligently brought her three meals a day. On the first day of her illness, Jun had brought up all her writing materials, but he hadn't returned since. Sho steered clear, probably sensing the change in the air, too - he'd been tending to Becky's gardens in her absence. Her writing went poorly, and though she'd done her best to ensure that she didn't waste any of the materials Jun had provided her, the bedroom floor was littered with failed paragraphs and sub-par sketches of airships and treasure hunts. Satoshi usually scooped up her wasteful efforts, depositing them in a basket at the side of the bed in case she wanted to look at them again.

On the fourth day, she finally decided that she was fully recovered. Becky hated sitting and dwelling on things, hated the way she behaved when she let her self-pity take control. After Satoshi departed with the breakfast tray, she dressed in a summery gown with a cheerful floral print, hoping she could get her mood to match. She gathered up her papers, having gotten through a new batch of edits the night before.

She marched downstairs and out into the courtyard, seeing Nino for the first time since she'd asked him to leave her room. He'd been her first friend at the castle, and much as he was frustrating, Becky had decided that Nino's desire to be a human was not truly as strong as his desire for Aiba to find happiness after so many years not being himself. She'd been too confused about her own feelings not to see how fervently the automatons wanted Aiba to find love for the sake of love alone. The becoming human again part was probably just a bonus.

Becky still wasn't sure what she felt. She cared about him, and her time spent reflecting had made her all the more positive that he was kind of perfect in his own strange way. There just wasn't much she could actually do about it. At least she didn't think so. She'd close her eyes and think of Aiba's voice, Aiba's laughter, and would take comfort in it. But then she'd remember his strange face and his large hands and the way he stooped over to try and look smaller, and it would still give her reason to fear, reason to be confused.

But if anything, she still wanted to know him and wanted to be around him. Surely that had to count for something.

She approached Nino, papers in tow. He was fixing a few dials on the dirigible, not greeting her with his characteristic wit. He instead waited for her to speak. She held out her edits, staring at his metal chest rather than his face. "I know it's a lot to ask you to keep going back and forth, but I have some more things for my father to mail to the capital."

He accepted the papers without complaint. "We'd fly around the world for you. You have to know that."

She sighed. "But why? I'm not the person you need. I guess I'm not the one you need to help him."

"That doesn't matter," he said quietly. "Any other messages for your father?"

She nodded. "If it's not too embarrassing for you, tell him I love him and miss him."

"I'd tell him you were giving up writing to live in a cave if you asked. It's not embarrassing, okay?" He held the papers up. "Let me tell Jun I'm off and see if we need anything. I'll see you later on."

Becky bid Nino farewell, gathering her courage to walk over to the workshop. She'd promised the other day that she'd help with Aiba's machine. Whether she was in love with him or not, he needed her tiny hands to get the Cloudbuster Machine back to its original glory. She had to have faith in her father's abilities since her own prejudice was keeping her from being useful in any way.

She knocked on the door of the workshop, hearing Aiba's hammering. "Masaki. It's Becky."

The hammering stopped almost instantly. "You can come in." His voice was missing the cheer it had held during their walk the other day. She wished she could go back in time, get that Masaki to come back with all his enthusiasm and smiles.

She entered the workshop cautiously, waiting at the edge of the workbench. Masaki was elbow deep in his Cloudbuster Machine, seeming to be working on attaching more of the metal tubes to the center of the contraption. As far as she could understand, the tubes funneled the energy from the clouds in and shot the rain back out. Beyond that, Aiba's descriptions had been too rapid fire and confusing. He set down his tools, wiping his hands clean.

"How are you feeling? The others haven't been bothering you, have they?" he asked gently, looking anywhere but at her face.

"Much better. I got a lot of writing done. Whether it's coherent or not will be up to my publisher in the capital."

He nodded, opening a tiny drawer in one of the tables and pulling out several shiny unused dials, laying them out in some sort of Aiba order that made sense to nobody but Aiba himself. "I'm sure it's perfect. They're good stories. Just from the way you talk about them, I'm sure they're great. I would have loved them when I was little."

She smiled weakly, appreciating the compliment but wishing it didn't hurt so much to receive it. It seemed from the slump of his shoulders and the way he wouldn't look up that he'd given up hope completely, and that was all her fault. "But I've had enough of writing, enough of being cooped up in that room. I was hoping I could be your assistant today."

He stopped, one of the dials dropping out of his hand and onto the table with a dull thunk. "You really want to help out with my machine?"

"Of course," she said. "I told you I would. And you were going on and on about how small my hands were. I figure I could do whatever you need that requires some slim fingers."

He seemed to brighten a bit at her offer, scooping the dials back up. "Well, then you're just in time," he said, gesturing for her to follow him over to the machine. He set the dials down on the control console's chair, pulling the console apart. "Now this will take me half the time and a quarter of the effort. Come here."

She obeyed, walking over shyly and waiting for instruction. He seemed to become someone else entirely when he was in front of one of his inventions. His voice sped up and his words ran together, so eager was he to spit out his explanations and his excitement. Becky did her best to translate Aiba's strange inventor language into something she could understand. As far as she could tell, Aiba was going to bore several holes into the panel - it would be Becky's job to insert the dial and then get on the other side of the panel to secure it.

Her earlier unease and Aiba's shyness disappeared soon after they got to work. He directed her with a well-trained eye, explaining how best to twist the dials into the holes he'd managed to drill with another one of his strange inventions. She went back and forth, using Aiba's smallest tools - the ones that had apparently been for Nino's hands prior to their transformations.

She put one of the dials on upside down and instead of chastizing her for her mistake, he laughed hysterically, insisting that they leave it there just the way it was. She couldn't keep from smiling, feeling better than she had in days. He'd give her a long complicated direction, and she'd do it in a simpler way, earning a surprised look and another giggle from him. "Oh," he said time after time, "that was quicker, wasn't it?"

Satoshi brought them lunch, admiring the progress they'd made on the Cloudbuster Machine while the two of them ate. They were just finishing up and Satoshi was clearing the plates when they heard the humming sound of the dirigible returning.

"He's back early," Satoshi remarked, heading out of the workshop and into the afternoon sun.

She was surprised when Aiba suddenly grabbed her by the hand, pulling her along. "Come on, I want to tell Nino how much better an assistant you are than he is. I want to see how he'll react..."

"Masaki, wait!" she cried, doing her best to keep up with his long strides as he pulled her out of the shop and into the courtyard as Nino landed. Sho and Jun emerged from the rear door, also curious about Nino's early arrival. Most days when he went to visit her father, he stayed and chatted with Maurice, letting him know about the goings-on at the castle, waiting patiently while her father went into town to pick up supplies for them.

She blushed as they stood in the courtyard, waiting for Nino to shut the dirigible down and open the gondola door. Aiba's large, furry hand completely engulfed hers, and he hadn't thought to let go of her yet, he was so excited. She didn't feel like wriggling away, enjoying the feeling of Aiba's enthusiasm seeming to transfer from his body to her own as he held her hand.

"Something's wrong," Sho said as Nino had barely gotten the gondola on the ground when he opened the door.

The first word out of Nino's mouth was her name. "Becky," he said, sounding panicked. "Becky, you have to come with me."

Her first thought was Maurice and the rainbow house. "Something happened?" she asked, worry clouding her features. Aiba gently released her hand, taking a step back. "Is my father alright?"

Nino shook his head. "When I got there, he was gone. He always leaves a note if he goes wandering off for this herb or that, but this time there was a note hammered to the door." Nino hurried back into the gondola, holding it out to her.

She grabbed it, unable to stifle her gasp.

House condemned - Occupant to be tried in High Court.  
Reason for official condemnation - Occupant entered Western Wood against established law.  
By order of Mayor Wulfric Gaston.

She was surprised there'd even been a notice on the door. That had been Alaric's doing, it had to have been. She handed the notice to Jun, who sounded immediately suspicious. "He entered the Western Wood?" Jun asked. "But why? He swore he would not..."

Nino still hadn't shut the dirigible's engine down. "Of course he didn't! I see him at least once a week, and he tells me every time that he's been behaving himself. He's been staying out because he promised Becky he wouldn't go."

"Then why has he been arrested?" Sho asked. "What proof do they have?"

"The dirigible," Nino explained. "The last time I spoke to Maurice, I saw a carriage approaching the house as I took off. Whoever was inside must have seen me flying off and over the Western Wood. Your father never had visitors any other time, but this was the day of the storm, so I left later than usual..."

"They were spying on him," Becky muttered. "Alaric was watching and waiting. And now they've taken him. Oh no, they've taken him!"

"But Becky, didn't you say this Gaston person has had it out for your father? Don't you think he's doing this to try and draw you out?" Satoshi asked, but Becky shook her head. It didn't matter - her father's life was at stake. Alaric had bided his time, and he'd finally had enough. She knew exactly where they took criminals awaiting trial. The courthouse and jail were right at the edge of the town square.

Becky stepped forward, right into the gondola with Nino. "I need you to take me to my house. I have to go into town and do something about this."

"Of course," Nino said, already heading for the control panel.

"Wait a moment," Jun interrupted. "What's to guarantee that this Mayor Gaston will release your father? What's to say he won't arrest you as soon as you appear?"

She stood her ground. "I have to go. Even if it's a trap, I have to go. He's my father." Her heart and mind were already racing, imagining her father being hauled away from the rainbow house, away from the Rain Goddess' shrine and the keepsakes of her mother's. She imagined him sitting alone in the jail, in the center of a town he had never cared for.

Becky looked to Jun. "I will honor my promise. Give me one day. Let Nino drop me off and come back the next day. If I'm successful, I'll bring my father with me. We can both stay here at the castle so he can finish his work."

Jun seemed to be weighing the options, Sho and Satoshi unsure of what to do. "But what if you're unable to bring your father with you?"

She'd told the automatons about Alaric and his father's great dislike for Maurice - what she hadn't told them, any of them, was about Alaric's liking for her. It was the only negotiating tactic she had remaining to her. And her one last tactic was going to ruin her life. But her father was too important, too precious to her. If ensuring her father's release meant that she'd become Mrs. Alaric Gaston, then she'd do whatever she could to see her father walk free. She couldn't bear to look at Aiba, instead keeping her gaze focused at the purple lapels of Count Matsumoto's jacket.

"The mayor's son is in love with me," she admitted. "I'll negotiate with him. I ask you for one day. If I don't appear at my father's house tomorrow, then they've probably tossed me in the cell with my father..."

"Miss Vaughn," Sho interrupted. "I won't see you fly off to certain imprisonment! I used to be the mayor of Sora, let me speak with this Mayor Gaston. I can..."

She looked to him kindly. The thought of Sho Sakurai in his red coat and metal body descending upon the center of Sora town to argue with Mayor Gaston was too much. "I thank you, but this is something I must do alone."

"But this is too dangerous," Satoshi said. "Becky, I don't want you to go."

"I don't think it's a good idea either," Sho agreed. "At least let Nino go into town with you."

"He can't!" Becky argued. "His body already started to break down staying at my house too long. I can't let him put himself at further risk to go into town. I won't ask that of any of you!"

"Becky, what if I stayed with you?" The four automatons turned their blank gazes on their friend, and Becky looked over to see the determination in Aiba's face. "I can keep you safe. Let me go with you."

It wasn't something she was used to seeing in an animal's face - it was something all too human. It was heartbreak. She gripped the open door of the gondola, squeezing tightly at the honesty in Aiba's face. He really was in love with her, she could see it so plainly now.

"I can't let you do that, Masaki. The people in town can't see what's happened to you. It could get out of control. They'd arrest you the same as me, and then how would that help your friends?"

"You helped me out so much, and I've already taken you away from your father," he said. "I can't let you go. Not like this. Not if I don't know if you'll come back or not."

She tried to smile. "Of course I'll come back," she said, the lie burning painfully. "Who else is going to install those knobs and dials wrong, huh?"

"Masaki, it's her father," Nino said gently. "You're not going to change her mind."

"Becky, please," Aiba begged her. "Whatever you have to do, please don't put yourself in danger. I'll never forgive myself if I let you fly away and something happens to you."

She remembered Alaric's threats, the cruel way he'd behaved the last time they'd met. Becky knew that Alaric was holding her father's freedom over her head as one final manipulation, his final means of getting her to be his and his alone. Becky hated to give in, and she hated the look in Aiba's eyes. She knew very well indeed that Aiba wouldn't be able to bear another burden.

It was as though the other four weren't there when she looked into his face. "I promise. I will see you again," she said quietly before stepping inside. "Nino, close the door."

He did so, engaging the lock and heading for the control console. She sat down on the bench, not able to look out the gondola window to see Aiba staring back. She had to save her father, no matter what it took. That would be her final gift to Masaki and the others for their friendship and kindness. In exchange for her father's freedom, she'd give herself as the prize. Then he'd be able to complete the potion and cure Masaki's curse. It was the only way now. She had to put her faith in the Rain Goddess. She had to pray for a miracle.

Nino didn't speak for some time once the dirigible left the ground, heading back east. "I know why you're doing this," he said.

She didn't reply, instead gazing out the window at the neverending sky.

"You think your father's means of helping Aiba are superior to your own. You think you can't be of any use at the castle."

She could feel her eyes welling up, but she refused to let her tears fall.

"Well, you're wrong," Nino continued.

An hour later they finally landed in the field of wildflowers. She'd refused to let him take her any further and risk harming himself. Nino left the engines running - he wouldn't demand to stay with her. He'd go back as she'd asked. He'd let her do as she wished, even if he didn't necessarily agree with it.

"I'll return at sunset to this same spot," Nino said quietly. "If you need to hide in the Western Wood until then, do so. But this is where I'll be. I'll wait all night if I have to."

She grasped his cold hand, clutching it between her own. "Promise me that you'll look out for my father. He can cure Masaki. If anyone can fix him, it's my father."

He nodded, opening the gondola door for her. "Be careful, Breeches. Please?"

She exited, walking away as Nino shut the door again and the dirigible rose into the sky. Sora rose up in the distance, the dark smokestacks a far cry from the clean air and brightness that had characterized the past several weeks at Matsumoto Castle. Walking straight to the courthouse and pleading with Alaric would solve nothing. She had to break her father out. She'd go under cover of darkness, hurry him back out of town. They'd hide in the Western Wood until Nino returned and would fly away. It was a risky plan - the exact kind of risk the automatons had warned her about.

But she'd promised to see Aiba again. Marrying Alaric Gaston would render that promise impossible. She couldn't bear the thought of never walking the courtyard of Matsumoto Castle again, not seeing the strange smile on Aiba's furry face. Satoshi's meals and Sho's stories and Jun's conversation. Nino's teasing. She didn't want to part with any of it.

She headed for the house, hoping the dogs were out and about and taking care of themselves. She needed to change into dark clothes for sneaking about, needed some small tools to break the locks at the jail. She'd known the Gastons a long time - she'd been in and out of the mayor's mansion, in and out of the courthouse and jail plenty of times. She and Alaric and the other children in their circle had snuck about, looking for secret entrances. She'd get her father out that way.

Plan set in motion, she opened the back door to get changed. What surprised her then was seeing Alaric Gaston himself sitting at the kitchen table.

"Welcome home, Rebecca," he said, rising to his feet and producing a revolver. He pointed it straight at her heart. "I've been expecting you, my dear."


	6. Chapter 6

He'd been waiting all day. Monitoring the house day and night, looking for a sign of the strange dirigible. He'd seen Nino with his own eyes - he called the automaton an "abomination." Taking Becky's father had initially been a means for him to draw Becky out of hiding. Now he had an even more interesting tale to tell - abominations were living in the Western Wood.

He'd tethered one of his giant horses behind the rainbow house, and he'd forced her to ride before him all the way back to Sora. "It would be a very interesting topic with my father," he said to her as the horse galloped along. "Men made of metal. Just think of it. Metal men serving on patrol in Sora. I say, nobody would dare cross us. If they possess the ability to man an airship, surely a bit of intimidation training and battle strategy would make them ready to keep tabs on the town."

"You would make Sora into your own little kingdom, Alaric?" she asked, despising the way he held the reins in one hand and kept hold of her with the other. Her hand had been in Aiba's earlier that day - held with affection. Alaric held her with nothing but possession and greed in his heart.

"Of course. The king's power is weakening, and the other towns will gobble one another up. It tips the scales in our favor if we have something they don't."

She saw the town loom larger and larger before her. "And what do you intend to do with my father? He hasn't hurt anyone. He hasn't been in the Western Wood..."

"My darling, you're not seeing the full story. Your father was to lure you. And you will lure them."

She shook her head. There was no way she'd tell Alaric about the automatons' weaknesses. He probably just thought they were mindless beings, capable of being programmed any way he'd like. "They won't come for me," she argued. "And you won't turn them to your side. That much I believe."

"But they'll be missing the most exciting event in town if they don't at least pay a visit."

"What event is that?" she asked, feeling the horse grow more and more exhausted under their combined weight and Alaric's insistence on forcing it to gallop faster.

"Our wedding of course," he said, and she could feel the barrel of the revolver push against her spine. "We're to be wed in the town square in two nights, just in time for my big day. Oh, you haven't heard, have you? Ah, of course you haven't since you've been hiding out in the Western Wood like a criminal. My father is stepping down. The night you become my bride is the night I become Sora's mayor."

"And my father?"

"Will be released to play with his potions. I don't much care about his silly magic. Just a crazy old man."

Her father would be safe. Alaric was getting everything he wanted - power and a bride to possess fully so long as her father was alive. She said nothing in reply. There was nothing that could be said.

They arrived at the Gastons' mansion, and she was immediately ushered in by several brutish fellows - family bodyguards. She was brought upstairs to a bedroom and the door locked. She thought of the castle, how happy she'd been there. Now she'd be miserable - miserable with Alaric, miserable without her friends and without Masaki. But her father would go free, and hopefully Masaki could be cured. It was the only way.

The hours passed. She slept fitfully that night and was forced into a rather strange breakfast with Alaric and his parents the following morning. Becky got the impression that Mayor and Mrs. Gaston had little idea of their son's ambitions or even that Maurice Vaughn had been imprisoned. It was all Alaric's doing, and she behaved herself at the meal. To protest meant that her father's freedom could all too easily be snatched away.

Time ticked away, and there were dress fittings and meetings with Alaric's other relatives. She felt like a doll, sitting quietly while the women gossiped and laughed, wondering aloud how Alaric had come to choose such a small little wife with "such plain features." She let them poke and prod at her as they decided on a wedding gown, on a wedding veil. They tsk'ed and sighed at her hips - "how will she bear any strong, sturdy Gaston children?" They sighed at her heritage - "the daughter of a useless charlatan, selling his vials of poison." They complained and criticized right in her face, and Becky could say nothing at all in her defense.

Sunset came and went. As Nino was most likely touching down in the wildflower field, Becky was practicing a walk down the aisle at the old stone church in the town square.

Alaric gripped her hand tightly as they stood at the altar together. "Your father's gone home. I've seen to that."

Her eyes widened in alarm. "Just like that? Without even letting me see him?"

He squeezed enough to send shockwaves of pain through her wrists and up her arms. "Quiet now. We're in the house of the gods, after all. I have what I wanted. There was no need for him to be wasting space in my jail."

But if Maurice was released, she thought with a surge of happiness, perhaps Nino had found him. Maybe Nino had flown him back to the castle and to safety. She'd done her mission in a backwards way, but at the very least, her father was safe and out of Alaric's clutches.

That night, Becky dreamed of Snow Lake - of Aiba sitting at the edge and looking down at her sadly as she sank down, down, down all the way to the bottom, her fingers outstretched to a surface she could no longer reach.

\--

She sat before the mirror in Alaric's mansion, staring at a person she could barely recognize. The ladies' maids had scrubbed her clean and curled her hair, painting her face with so much makeup she had a hard time seeing what she truly looked like underneath. Her dress was a stark white with short lace sleeves and embroidered with tiny white flowers. She could only think of the flowers at the rainbow house and her gardens at the castle.

Her body had gotten used to days without being confined by corsets, and the readjustment was making every breath a challenge. The maids had shown little mercy in lacing her up, chuckling about how "delightful" it would be for Alaric to "unwrap" her later. They placed a gaudy tiara on her head and attached the veil Alaric's relatives had selected on her behalf before walking her out to the carriage that was waiting to take her to the church and to a life forever at the mercy of Alaric Gaston. She thought with hope of her father working side by side with Masaki in his workshop. Between her father's faith and Aiba's odd genius, they'd surely be able to brew something up.

Earlier that day, in a ceremony she had not been required to attend, Alaric's father had officially stepped down as Mayor of Sora as the town cheered the succession of his son. The whole town was abuzz about the sudden wedding, the maids had been whispering to one another. It was now early evening - there'd be a quick wedding ceremony and a grand banquet back at the mansion for the town's captains of industry and leading citizens.

The carriage made its way over the cobblestones of the Sora streets. Alaric, his father, and the guests were awaiting her arrival, and she tried not to cry as her new life was about to start. It was her own wedding day, and her father was not invited (though she wanted him as far from Sora as possible). She'd be escorted down the aisle by Alaric's father as one last insult to her family line and one last reminder of the power Alaric now held over her.

The carriage turned the corner and was almost to the square when the horses suddenly protested noisily, the carriage coming to a sudden stop. That was when she heard the hum. She tore the veil and tiara off her head, the maids accompanying her in the carriage screeching at her insolence as she flung open the carriage door, bunching her long white gown in her hands and hopping down into the street.

All the well-wishers who'd gathered to celebrate the wedding were now staring in shock as the dirigible from the west, far smaller than any dirigible at the air station, flew past the spires of town and began its descent into the square. As it landed, she started to run, her shoes ridiculously tight and for the sort of women who didn't run around in the mud or muck about in the garden the way she did. But she didn't care about it hurting - all she knew was that they'd come too far. Nino had come too far from the castle.

There was a clamor at the church, and she saw Alaric, his father, and his private little army emerge onto the steps. They were opposite the direction she was coming from, with the landing dirigible in between them. "Arrest him! Arrest the pilot!" Alaric was screaming as the crowd started to panic.

The gondola didn't touch the ground before the door slid open, and she was startled at the sight of a bright red jacket. "Becky!" Sho cried out for her, using her nickname for the very first time. "Becky, come on!"

She could see Nino at the controls, and Sho at the door holding open his arms. The crowd screamed at the sight of Sho's metal body. "A machine!" "What kind of armor is that?" "Is the town being attacked?" But Becky did her best to run forward, trying not to trip over her gown.

Alaric was ordering his men to fire, but they'd come running out of the church - they had no weapons on them at all. Their master was not as concerned about having a weapon on sacred ground. Alaric pulled out his revolver from inside his suit jacket, leveling it at the gondola and firing. The glass shattered just as she grabbed hold of Sho's hands, letting him haul her up and into the gondola.

"Nice dress, Breeches!" Nino shouted over the noise and chaos in the town square. "Sho, get the door!"

"I know, I know!" the other automaton complained, slamming it shut.

She ducked down, shoes crunching on broken glass as Nino sent the dirigible into the air. "My father?" she asked, running out of breath. "Nino, what about my father?"

"He's at the castle. He's safe. Satoshi took him into the forest. They're probably even fishing," Nino admitted.

Sho cleared away the glass from the floor, and wind whipped into the gondola from the outside as they sailed back over Sora. "Jun and Aiba are prepping the castle. Your friend there will surely follow us back."

She nodded, hardly believing what was happening. They'd rescued her, flown all the way to Sora for her, and she could only shake. "Thank you," she muttered. "I don't know why, but thank you."

Sho sat down on the bench, gripping it tightly in his metal fingers. "Fly faster, Nino. If you don't mind?"

Nino sighed. "You see what happens, Becky? They wouldn't let me go alone. We didn't know where you'd be so they sent this ridiculous person with me for backup."

"I'm not ridiculous," Sho protested.

"You're afraid of heights, and we're in a dirigible."

"It's fine if I don't look out the window!"

She smiled, her happiness returning slightly the further they got away from the grime and misery of Sora. The houses below turned to green fields. Soon they'd be to the rainbow house and then in another hour, Matsumoto Castle. But it wasn't long before the automatons' bickering quieted down.

She got up, sitting beside Sho on the bench. "Sho, are you alright? Are you really that scared of heights?"

"Yes," he said, and his voice sounded more like an fading echo. "But we couldn't let Masaki leave. And it's Jun's castle, so he's dead set on defending it."

She tangled her fingers with his metal ones and squeezed. "Thank you."

"Miss Vaughn, it's been an absolute pleasure."

She laughed. "You're talking like this is the end. But it's the beginning, don't you see? My father will surely find a cure and..." Her hand had apparently squeezed too hard, and she gasped as Sho's fingers detached from his hand.

Nino adjusted a dial, checked the altimeter. "You're falling apart, old man," he said quietly.

Sho's voice sounded even more distant. "Well, it was my fault all those years ago, and I guess I couldn't hold up forever. I was reckless. I kept trying to go back to Sora. I was the mayor, after all. I thought they needed me. I guess they did alright without me."

Sho's metal body was weakening. They still had an hour in the sky, and already the tether holding the automaton Sho to his physical self in the tank at the castle was severing. She could feel him slipping away before her eyes, seeing the way his feet were shaking, almost like the bolts holding him together were loosening.

"No," she murmured, desperately trying to push his fingers back on, only for the rest of his hand to crumble. "Oh Sho, no, this can't be happening."

"Miss Vaughn," Sho whispered. "Don't you worry about me."

"Nino, can't you do something? she asked.

He didn't move. "It's taking everything I've got to fly you back, Breeches. Don't you cry on me now. I can't stand it when girls cry."

The minutes ticked away as they flew over the Western Wood, the distance shortening between them and the castle. She sat there in her unwanted wedding dress, longing to be reunited with her father. Longing to be reunited with Masaki. But the damage had already been done.

"Sho?" she asked when he'd finally stopped speaking. "Sho?"

The automaton sat there on the bench, dressed in its fine red coat. The automaton didn't move again. She got up, moving to the panel in her haste. "Nino, can't I help you?" she begged him, tears in her eyes. What had happened to Sho? Had his soul vanished? Where had he gone? "Please, maybe you should rest and concentrate, let me do some of this for you."

"Masaki would never forgive me if I didn't get you back. Sho and I both knew what it meant to get on this dirigible today, so sit down and let me fly."

She couldn't sit. She couldn't bear to sit on the bench beside Sho's empty body, knowing that this only happened because she'd been captured. Instead she stared out the window, longing to see the red and white towers on the horizon. But the skies behind them were not as empty as they'd been minutes earlier.

"We've got company," Nino announced, turning the wheel suddenly, jolting the dirigible and sending off his right arm below the elbow.

"Nino!"

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I'm left-handed."

She could see from the size and quickly gaining position of the ship behind them that Alaric had managed to commandeer a vessel from the air station. It would catch them soon. Nino descended as low as he dared, the bottom of the gondola nearly skimming the tops of the trees. She could hear metal crumbling behind her, knowing it was Sho's metal body, and she refused to look. Instead she remained at Nino's side, focusing on all the gauges and dials.

The other ship was right on their tail when they flew over the castle walls, Nino cutting the engine suddenly so they dropped down into the courtyard in a sudden free fall. He brought the two of them down to the floor, covering her with his metal body as they descended. "Sorry for the rough landing," he apologized, and she squeezed her eyes shut and clung to him, her stomach in knots as the gondola landed on the cobblestones with a heavy crunch.

When she finally opened her eyes, she knew. She was perfectly unharmed, but Nino's armor was in pieces all around her, and all she was holding onto was the breastplate of his metal body. Both Sho and Nino were gone. Where had they gone? How could she get them back?

But there was no time to ponder it as she heard the noisy pop and hiss above her. Alaric and his brutes had shot and popped the dirigible's balloon, and if she didn't get out of the gondola before it deflated all around, she'd be trapped. She felt awful leaving what had once been Sho and Nino behind, but they'd sacrificed themselves to get her to the castle. It would not be in vain.

She could hear Jun in the courtyard, screaming for her. She raced to the door, having to tug on it to get it open after the crash landing. He was holding a sword and shield skillfully, though it wouldn't last long against the musket and revolver fire coming from the airship above them. The other dirigible seemed to be circling the courtyard, looking for a place to set down. Both drawbridges were up, so there was no way in from the outside, but the vessel Alaric had taken was far too large to land there in the courtyard.

Jun hurried over to her. "Your father's safe! He's safe! He's with Satoshi, away from the castle!"

Hopefully not too far away, she thought in her worry. Jun seemed to be waiting for two more figures to follow her out of the dirigible, his shoulders slumping when none did so. She was almost glad he didn't have a human face at that moment - she wasn't sure she could bear the true sight of his grief at the loss of his friends.

"Let's get you inside," Jun ordered, standing in front of her and blocking her from Alaric's sights. "Hurry!"

"Where is Masaki?"

"Where do you think he is?" Jun cried, holding up the shield just as a gunshot ricocheted from the skies.

The workshop. "Take me there."

"No, you're safer inside. There's a secret compartment in my study..."

"Jun please, take me to..."

One of the muskets fired, and Jun wasn't fast enough. She screamed as the shot sent his metal body flying back against her, nearly knocking her down. A smoking hole had already torn through his purple jacket to the center of his breastplate. "Go then," he said, "go to the workshop and bolt the door."

"Come with me..."

"This is my castle," the automaton said. "I won't give up without a fight. Now go on, see if Masaki's come up with something that can blast them out of the sky." He gave her a shove. "Go, damn it!"

She fumbled her way along the castle wall, out of Alaric's range. She could hear Jun clomping around the courtyard, using his own body to draw their fire. She could see one of Alaric's men open the gondola door of the large airship, setting out a long rope ladder. She pounded on the door of the workshop. "Masaki!" she cried. "Masaki, it's me!"

"Becky!" she heard him shout from inside, and he unbolted the door, opening it. "Becky, where are the others? Where are..." He looked just past her, seeing Jun fighting alone in the courtyard as Alaric approached with his revolver. "Inside," he said quickly. "Inside with me."

He pulled her into the workshop, bolting the door and hurriedly pushing one of his worktables against it. Finally he turned around, looking at her. She was breathing heavily, feeling almost faint from the way the maids had contorted and twisted her body to fit their ideal image. He stared at her. "You got married?"

She shook her head, trying to catch her breath. "Almost. But not quite."

He nodded. "Good. That's good. I think."

He scratched at his fuzzy hair, looking around the workshop. He pushed past her, picking up various jars and beakers. Aiba had never fought before. She could tell by the confusion in his face, the panic in his large, trembling hands as he wandered around looking for some way to defend them.

"This...this could burn through...well, it'll burn through flesh but we'd have to throw it on him." He picked up a hammer. "Or I could...well, I guess I could hit him with this if it came down to it. I don't know...um, what if I just scratched him? Oh! Oh wait, maybe it's easier if I just wait until he's out of bullets and punch him in the face?"

She hurried forward, throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. His body was the same kind of comforting warm it had been that day in the forest when he'd carried her. She laid awake in Alaric's house the past two nights, trying to remember what it had felt like, but nothing compared to the real thing. She never wanted to let him go. Even if he had a snout and maybe a tail (she still hadn't asked), she wanted to be by his side.

"Becky," he whispered, stroking her hair.

"Masaki, I..."

Alaric slammed his body against the door with all his might, enough to jolt the worktable. Aiba pushed her behind him, picking up one of his screw-turners from the table. "I won't let him get near you again," he vowed, holding out the tool in front of him.

Becky couldn't hear anyone outside but Alaric. Had Jun managed to fend off the other attackers? Alaric screamed, battering the workshop door again and again in his fury. Eventually the noise quieted.

"He hasn't given up," she said, looking around. That's when she saw the large shadow outside the glass windows near the ceiling. He'd managed to scale the wall. "Masaki, look out!"

The glass shattered, and Alaric dropped several feet to the ground, his suit torn up and his face sporting slashes from the glass. But the revolver in his hand was steady, even as he met Aiba's eyes. "A metal army. Clearly it had to be the work of some kind of freak."

"I am what I am," Aiba replied calmly, but standing behind him, Becky could feel him shaking.

"And it talks too! Rebecca, step away from this monster. As the mayor of Sora, I order you to..."

"Don't you know her at all?" Aiba interrupted with a chuckle, holding out the screw-turner. "She doesn't listen to anyone."

And then Masaki was pushing her, ducking them both behind the worktable as Alaric fired his revolver. How many shots had he fired at the dirigible? How many in the courtyard? "Stay down," Aiba whispered.

Alaric leapt onto the table, raising the revolver once more, and Masaki sprang into sudden action, meeting Alaric halfway. They rolled off of the worktable and onto the floor on the other side. Becky could hear them struggling, could hear Alaric's cursing and Masaki's almost ferocious roars. She spied the hammer at the edge of the table, desperately stretching her fingers as she crawled along the floor. She could help him. If Masaki couldn't do it, then damn it, she could.

But then she heard the gunshot and Alaric's groan.

She got to her feet, clambering over the workbench to see Alaric rolling off of Masaki's prone form, the revolver falling from his grasp and skittering across the floor. He let out one last breath in surprise, screw-turner protruding from his heart. Alaric Gaston was dead.

And Aiba was laying there gasping, the white dress shirt the automatons had insisted he wear turning red with blood. Alaric's shot hadn't missed. "No!" she cried, falling to her knees and pulling Masaki's furry head into her lap and stroking his face. "What happened to waiting for him to run out of bullets?" she chided him, seeing his large hand come up to cover his wound. "You were going to wait!"

He coughed, almost laughing. "Nino...Nino always says I don't think things through. And I thought...I thought getting glass in my hand was rough..."

She couldn't stop crying, desperately begging for him to hang on. "My father," she muttered. "We can go get my father. He's with Satoshi in the forest..."

"I...I don't think this is something..." He winced. "...something he can fix with leaves and twigs, Becky."

"You don't know that," she said, seeing the special Masaki spark dimming in his eyes. Blood was staining her dress, bright red on pure white. She remembered her muddy boots stomping through the clean snowfall at Snow Lake. "He's pretty good with twigs."

Masaki laughed. "Becky, don't cry. You're more beautiful when you smile, don't you know that? I love your smile," he said with a weak grin. "I love you."

And with one last wheeze, his brown, human eyes fluttered closed, and she was alone in the workshop. She squeezed his hand, begging for him to return to her. "You can't go," she cried. "Masaki, you can't run away. Not now. Not when I haven't gotten to tell you!"

His face was at peace, the pain of one hundred years in a body that wasn't his own fading away. But it wasn't fair. It simply was not fair. She looked up, staring out through the broken window glass and seeing nothing but the darkening sky as the summer sunset faded.

"What do you need me to do?" she screamed with everything she had. "What more do you want from him? I love him! Can you hear me? Are you even out there any more?" She looked for a sign, for any change in the sky, even for a storm cloud. The Rain Goddess had to be out there.

She cradled Aiba's body against hers. "Listen to me! Please! I love him! Isn't that all it takes? Isn't that enough to turn him back? Are you listening? I love him!" Becky looked down, putting her fingers to Aiba's lips. "I love him."

"My goodness, you're a noisy one."

Becky looked up, seeing a woman with striking auburn hair and a tight dress walking nonchalantly around the workshop. She held her breath - it was the Rain Goddess herself. She'd come after one hundred years. She watched the Goddess give a tug to the cloth that covered the four tanks in the workshop, hearing her laugh strangely. Becky had only had a glimpse before, but now she could see the four men clearly. Still in clothes and with faces that had appeared in her dream - Satoshi in a simple blue dress shirt and black trousers, Sho in red, Jun in purple. And at the end of the line in a golden yellow shirt and knee-length brown breeches was Nino. She'd guessed correctly.

"He did very well, keeping them alive and preserved like this," the Goddess remarked, almost as if she was attending a zoo exhibition. "I suppose I misjudged the boy, seeing how hard he's worked."

Becky said nothing. She didn't know what she could say without getting on her hands and knees and begging for the woman to restore them all.

"There aren't too many men like your father, Rebecca," she continued, tapping Satoshi's glass like a fish tank. "I've been watching him, guiding him for many years now. I suppose you could say I awakened his curiosity about the Western Wood. Sometimes we make decisions in haste, don't we? I didn't want to take back all I'd done to your friends here. Much as I feel like I overreacted, undoing punishments isn't usually my style, but seeing your father's faith, seeing your own curiosity, Rebecca. I suppose I could take credit for all that's happened here."

The Goddess had accused Masaki of hubris. If anyone possessed arrogance, it was the Goddess herself, but Becky decided not to say anything about that. She looked down at Masaki's calm face. "You're saying it was destiny for me to meet him?"

"Was it?" the Goddess mused. "Was it destiny for that brutish lout to die with a common tinkerer's tool sticking out of his chest? Maybe so. I stick to the weather more than anything, you see. But I like you, Rebecca. And I like your father. The more people who forget me, the more my powers fade in time. You can't possibly understand."

"I suppose I couldn't."

The Goddess knelt down at her side, resting a strangely cold hand on her shoulder. It reminded her of the chill at Snow Lake despite the summer warmth. "But I think our boy's learned his lesson. And it was getting so tiring watching him shove food in his mouth like a stray dog." The Goddess placed her hand over Masaki's chest, and Becky was nearly blinded by the bright light that shone from her hand. She looked away until the Rain Goddess got to her feet.

When she looked down, there was no snout, no fur. Just a man with the same frizzy brown mess of hair, but shorter. He had full lips that quirked up a bit at the edges, a long if normal nose, and the same almond-shaped eyes. This was Masaki. The real Masaki. She sat there, unable to speak in her surprise as his eyes opened, blinking in confusion. He reached out a hand, a normal human hand with a large palm and thin fingers.

"Have a long and happy life, Rebecca. Take care of him. He seems to need you for that," the Rain Goddess said, having walked back to the tanks. She knocked on Satoshi's again. "Glug glug!"

It happened in an instant. The Goddess vanished into thin air and the four tanks shattered, spilling out torrents of water as the four men within coughed and spat, falling out of the tanks and onto the floor. The tears she'd cried in agony were replaced with tears of happiness. She had them back - all five of them.

Masaki looked up at her and smiled. No more fangs. It was the most perfect smile she'd ever seen. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," she said back, feeling his hand come up to cup her cheek. She pressed her fingers over his own, leaning in to his gentle touch. He was handsome in an almost peculiar way - maybe she'd just grown used to him with the snout. He couldn't stop smiling, and her cheeks started to ache - she couldn't stop smiling back at him.

"Hey! Stop making moony eyes and get up!" she heard Nino complain, and she helped get Aiba to his feet.

The four former automatons stood there shaking, soaked to the bone after a hundred years floating in a tank. She saw Satoshi's gentle smile for the first time, Sho's kind eyes, Jun's haughty grin, and Nino's wicked expression.

"Masaki," Jun grumbled, shaking his head and sending droplets of water flying. "What in the world have you done to my castle?"

She felt Aiba's arm wrap around her shoulder tightly. "Ah, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Satoshi's eyebrows nearly shot up into his hairline. "Oh wait! Your father!" And off Satoshi ran, shoving the table out of the way and unbolting the door. "He's probably so confused!" she heard him shouting as he took off into the courtyard and off to the forest, Sho on his heels grumbling and fussing.

Jun and Nino walked around the table, squelching in the water. Nino toed at Alaric's body with his foot. "Think we've got some cleaning up to do. He was the mayor, you know."

Jun grinned. "Well it's a good thing we have a replacement ready. Come on, let's get him out of here." The two men hoisted the body, complaining about how much easier it had been to do heavy lifting when they were metal.

That left her and Masaki alone in the workshop, the water still trickling around. He was still tall, but he seemed a lot smaller without all the hair. She could hardly believe it, looking from head to toe, that he'd been like an animal for one hundred years. Becky was suddenly seized with laughter.

He was confused, studying her face and holding her by the shoulders. "What's wrong? Did she give me a third eye? A third nipple? Am I a girl now? Was it something I said? Wait, I haven't really said anything yet! Is it my face? Is my face funny? Do you not like me in my real body?" He looked down at his arm, still rambling. "What if I grew some more hair, would that help? I can get hairy, Becky, I swear. I can mix up a potion. Or do you not like hairy guys? Hair no good? I can cut it! Eyes no good? I'll get some glasses..."

She shook her head. Some things about Aiba were unchangeable. "Oh, would you quiet down already? I'm just realizing that I never asked you."

"Asked me what?"

She blushed. "I never asked if you had a tail. You know, before."

His mouth dropped open slightly before he let out a goofy laugh, no different from the strange breathy noises he'd made while he'd been cursed. He pulled her against him, hugging her so tight she could barely breathe. "Becky, Becky, Becky," he murmured, lips against her hair. "I guess you'll just never know."

\--

THREE MONTHS LATER

\--

She tore through the armoire, frowning. "I don't have any nice cloaks!" Becky grumbled, hearing Nino sigh behind her.

"Well, I've got an umbrella, you know," he complained. "When I looked like a scrap heap, you didn't seem to care what you wore."

"Today is a special day," she shot back, slamming the armoire door closed. "You were a lot nicer when I couldn't see your face."

"What a lady you are," he grumbled. "Just hurry up, Breeches. I'll be in the courtyard."

The castle was empty, save for her and Nino. Masaki, Jun, and Satoshi had gone ahead with the finally completed machine, upside down dials and all. They were taking the path through the woods for the demonstration, and Nino was waiting for her to pick a cloak so they could fly to the rainbow house. Mayor Sakurai would be coming from Sora - it seemed that the Rain Goddess had not been particularly fond of the Gaston family, finding some way to poison the town's minds against them. Sho had gone to town and gotten swept straight into the vacuum left behind. Sora was clearly in better hands now.

The others had spent the time restoring the castle, repairing the dirigible, and finally finishing the machine that Aiba had worked so tirelessly to complete. Of course, it was October and the harvest had just come and gone, but Masaki was nothing if not stubborn. He wanted to show what his Cloudbuster could do before winter came.

She finally settled on a bright green rain jacket, going with practical need over appearance. She couldn't wait for Jun's disappointment in her. She hurried down the stairs to the courtyard, seeing Trouble and Sunshine romping around in the garden. Becky boarded the dirigible, and they flew to the rainbow house.

The valley and wildflower fields were teeming with residents of Sora as the dirigible landed just south of the house. Nino grabbed her wrist, pulling her through the crowds to see that Masaki had already started talking about the many benefits his Cloudbusting Machine would bring to the fields. Jun and Sho stepped aside with smiles, allowing Nino and Becky to stand at the front beside Satoshi and Maurice, seeing Aiba standing on the platform of his machine like a proud parent. She held her father's hand, and he squeezed tight.

"...and by the grace of the Rain Goddess herself, we'll be able to make it through a drought," Aiba explained cheerfully.

"Finally," Nino murmured. "Only took him a century to get it right."

The crowd cheered, and Sho issued a request for everyone to put up their umbrellas. Nino put up his own umbrella, holding it over both of their heads. Aiba twisted several knobs and the machine clanged and chugged its way on, pulling the molecules from the clouds overhead. He pulled several levers, reversing the process, and the crowd gasped and applauded as rain came shooting out of the metal tubes, splattering them all with water.

And in the center was Masaki Aiba, human again and standing on the platform of his machine. He stared up into the heavens, holding his arms up in gratitude and happiness as the rain fell, smiling and laughing as the droplets hit his skin. Nino elbowed her in the side. "Go on, it's his crowning moment," he teased.

She left Nino's side, tossing the hood off and dashing for the platform. Aiba cried out in surprise as she climbed up and rushed into his arms as the rain soaked them. "I'm so proud of you!" she said.

"What?" he cried, pointing at his ear. "The machine's really loud!"

She laughed, feeling the rain start to plaster her hair to her head. His hair was sticking in damp tendrils all around his face, his cheerful smile something she wanted to see every day for the rest of her life. He was beautiful and perfect and all hers. "I said I love you!" she shouted, giving him a playful shove.

He wrapped his arm around her and bent down, pressing his mouth to hers with all his might. She heard the crowd cheer as Aiba lifted her up into his arms. He kissed her again and again between his silly laughs as he twirled them in circles on the platform until all the water in the Cloudbuster Machine had fallen in the fields around Sora.

THE END


End file.
